Yugioh Vrains: Lightning Hunter(Rewrite)
by Romadrox8975
Summary: Twelve souls that were destroyed by the ambition of people who only wanted the human evolution but that only resulted in the creation of the lightning hunter, this is his story of how she will become the hero of Link Vrains (cover art by @ITSASH0WTIME)
1. The First Thunder

_**Welcome to the new version of Lightning Hunter, I'm sorry for the bad news and I did not like the results of the first series, because when I started it I did it fast not thinking about how much it affected the quality of the original (Due also to the problem that I was moving).**_

_**The first chapters of that version are a disaster in some things and the plot is everywhere, in this new version things will be different, this time I have a plot and take old elements of the first.**_

_**Without further delay we will start the chapter.**_

_**Also, Thanks and the sky for the idea and concepts, and help me writing this series and also Antimattering for the translation help.**_

* * *

_**Chapter 1: The first Thunder.**_

"This can't be happening, not now." The white robed man muttered these words as he tried to flee, stopping dead in his tracks as the alley he'd run down offered no escape. He was a member of the Knights of Hanoi, a well known cyberterrorist group intent on destroying Link Vrains in pursuit of the Ignis.

The man tried to calm himself as panic took hold, placing a hand to his chest to try and slow his breathing and the pounding of his heart. Needless to say, things weren't going quite as well as his eight companions said they would on this hunting trip.

"Damn it, we're not all going down." He looked to the device on his left wrist, the current iteration of the duel disk. It functioned as a way to grant person access to the virtual world of Link Vrains and contained the deck of cards they'd use for dueling.

A noise from above caused the man's gaze to jolt upwards, a scream of terror escaping his mouth as he saw one of his comrades hanging by a rope connected to a building overlooking the alley. He realized now he'd been found, falling backwards in fear. "What the hell is happening?!" He wailed, watching another member of his group disappear into a shower of particles.

The man tried in vain to log out, finding it impossible as expected. The Hunter had already found him and was closing in for the kill. There was only one way for him to get out of this, though he didn't like his odds.

"You'll have to beat me first!" He shouted into the darkness, ready to fight the illuminated figure that began approaching him. In the end, though, he turned out to be all talk. As quick as Lightning, the Hunter had caught their prey just like all the rest.

"Incredible..." A girl in a red bodysuit said from a nearby rooftop, a pair of floating camera orbs having recorded the short interaction that barely qualified as a duel. "They were all taken out without even getting a chance to do anything." Her name was Tech Glitch, a well known journalist in Link Vrains with a reputation for crusading for the truth. While a good story was her primary motivation, she was also looking to help any of the anonymous heroes cleaning up the network.

The Hunter was leaving the alleyway now. Standing up from a kneeling position, the reporter shook out her long, dark hair and readjusted the cybernetic visor over her face. "Now that I've got all this footage, I'm going to show the whole world the hero you are." She spoke to herself, meaning for the words to reach the figure below.

As a response, the cameras immediately began to fail, the images in their screens replaced by static as the video from earlier became corrupted. "Wait, what's happening?" She questioned in a panic.

The cameras exploded after that, leaving both her toys and the story in pieces. "Why is this happening to me?" She moaned. What's worse, the figure was long gone by now, leaving no chance of even so much as an interview. "How do you expect me to find you now, Lightning Hunter?" She shouted into the sky.

* * *

_**(O'Hara Residence: Den City)**_

Opening her eyes as her face was hit by the sunlight filtering in through the gap in the curtains, Yuritzi tried to pull herself out of bed. This proved to be more difficult than intended though as she felt a strong grip on her arm from the space beside her.

It was Maria, of course, she is supposed to be her stepsister. Ever since they were kids, they'd always had to share a bed for safety. It was a bit overprotective, sure, but given their position and Maria's deafness, it helped to quiet her anxiety.

Like most mornings, Maria was still deep in sleep. With a quiet sigh, Yuritzi did her best to pull Maria's arm off of her without disturbing the girl, resisting the urge to tousle her hair in the process. Finally freed, she pulled the covers up over the sleeper before grabbing a few clothes from her dresser and heading to the bathroom.

She peered into the mirror hanging above the sink. Tired as always no matter how much slept, Yuritzi tried her best to fix the mess of tangled white hair on top of her head. As she brushed a part of it that typically hung in front of half her face, she was again reminded of her failures.

Like with most mornings, the memories came flooding back in full force. She'd lost everything in the fire save for Maria and Miguel. That's all that was left for her in this world and she was intent on protecting it. She caught sight of the burn scars across her right arm, thinking she should probably cover those up with some bandages again. She hated the sight of them, after all.

But that could all wait for a time. The next twenty minutes were for one of her only indulgences, that being a soak in an ice cold tub of water. It was a good way to wake up in the morning and probably cost less than a hot version, plus it reminded her of the chill of the mountains from a more peaceful time.

After getting out, she heard a knock at the door. "Hold on, I'm naked." She called.

"I just wanted to know if Maria's in your room?" Miguel asked from outside.

"Like always." She replied.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. If she was still there, it meant she was asleep, which also meant he was in charge of trying to wake her up. "When you get done in there, help me get her to her own room." He said.

Once Yuritzi dressed, she stepped out into the hall to join up with Miguel. Though he was Maria's biological sibling, it was always startling just how opposite they looked. They had the same dark skin, but outside of a country like Japan, they'd hardly be mistaken for so much as acquaintances. Maria was always small and demure while Miguel was built like an ox, towering over even Yuritzi herself since the early days. Though they shared the same purple hair color, Maria's was short and tidy against her head while Miguel's manifested as a ball of fluff sitting on top.

In truth, she was standing here making these observations to put off having to do what they needed to do now. That was to attempt to lift Maria out of bed. Small as she was, she was still unexpectedly heavy.

Not able to put it off any longer, they finally made their way back to Yuritzi's room. She took Maria in her arms, swaddling her in the sheets like a baby before handing her off to Miguel.

"Thanks." He said, watching Yuritzi fall backwards onto the bed from the strain. After a moment's recovery, they made their way to Maria's room and laid her down onto her own bed.

With this arduous task complete, Yuritzi returned to her room and slapped on her old model duel disk. She looked down to its circular gray surface reading the time. "Guess I still have time before school," she said as Miguel appeared in the doorway. "I want to make sure SOL sent us the message already."

Miguel nodded, leading her to another room in their cramped apartment that he liked to call the "command centre". Taking a seat in the shabby chair stationed in front of a plain wooden desk, he began to tape at the keyboard. As usual, his fingers thundered across the keys like a clumsy ogre. As usual, this made Yuritzi stifle a laugh, a small pleasure for her.

"Looks like Mr. Kryan sent you one last message after you went to sleep," Miguel said while scrolling through the inbox. "Says he's grateful for what you did on the mission. Going to pay us within 12 hours on the next business day, and he wants a personal meeting to give you your next assignment."

Yuritzi stifled another laugh, clearing her throat and shoving Miguel on the shoulder. "Hey, act like an adult," she said, obviously projecting her own immaturity.

Yuritzi couldn't help but scoff, receiving a shove from Miguel in response. "Hey, behave. He's the guy who pays us."

"Right..." He said, taking things in stride. "Pretty formal and boring, though. Can't he jazz it up a bit?"

"Of course it's boring and formal, he's an adult."

"So am I, but I'm not boring or formal." Despite his protests, Yuritzi just shook her head, the both of them knowing full well Miguel barely qualified as an adult of any kind.

Kryan was Yuritzi's only connection to SOL Technologies, he was willing to take her on as a bounty hunter despite her lack of credentials. She didn't do the work for the money though; she was much more interested in the resources this kind of position provided in uncovering the mysteries of her past.

Any further discussion on work had to be postponed though as Yuritzi glanced at her wrist and realized she had to leave. "Got to go now, but I'll try to make that meeting as early as I can." She said, running out of the room to grab her backpack.

Before she made it out the door though Miguel stopped her. "Can you do something for me?" He asked. "The therapist has been telling me to try and get Maria to do something besides homework, cooking, or drawing. She said she should try to do something with her family more, so..." He hesitated at the mention of family.

"So…?" Yuritzi asked, forcing the conversation forward after picking up on his discomfort.

"Could you teach her about Duel Monsters? She seems to like it, so if you were able to teach in your spare time, I think it might help." He turned back to the computer, already feeling guilty for the request. "You don't have to, obviously. I just thought it might be-"

"No. Sorry." She didn't have time to mince words or give him false hope.

Miguel turned back around, wanting to say more. However, he couldn't quite bring himself to continue on this subject, ending up with a simple, "Don't forget to eat breakfast before you leave." He had missed his chance once again

* * *

_**(Link Vrains: Unknown)**_

"This is boring." A young woman yawned from inside a distant temple. "Do we really have to wait for him here every time we come to this place?"

"Quiet." The male beside her ordered "If all you do is complain, you have no reason to come to our meetings."

"If I didn't come, I wouldn't be able to protect you." The girl gave a smug smile. "We all know how reckless you are, Revolver."

Revolver, the leader of the Knights of Hanoi, the organization responsible for destroying the Cyberse cards and endangering Link Vrains to find the Ignis. Standing in his nearly alien-looking avatar, he exuded power from every inch of his form. And somehow he was being talked down to by a subordinate.

This subordinate was a girl known as Oblivion within the virtual world, named as such for allegedly being a knight that emerged straight from Hell that could survive oblivion itself. In keeping with that theme, she built her avatar in such a way as to evoke the European knights of old while still representing the standard colors of Hanoi in the form of a white armored suit with green shoulders, all of this cloaked by a black cape wrapped around her body as she waited next to her leader. Of particular note was the black duel disk on her left arm, a physical deck of cards slid into its circular body. Rare to see these days.

Their wait wouldn't be much longer though as the man they'd come to find finally showed up. Not in person, but on a screen, something that made both Revolver and Oblivion quite annoyed. "You still refuse to meet with us." the former spoke coldly. "Cowardly as you are, you still have the gall to call yourself Emperor? You can't even show us your face."

The Emperor himself didn't much seem to care about this, simply remaining in the shadows while sitting atop a throne and playing with some kind of razor blade. His companion, however, took exception to this. "You'd best learn not to speak to the Emperor this way." A man using a hellhound avatar threatened. "The stars predicted a troubled day ahead for you. Now I see why."

This was nothing new. Revolver and the Emperor were on far from good terms, the two factions coming into conflict virtually every time they met like this. It wasn't a surprise to anyone that they'd already started going at it.

"I think I speak for both of us when I say we don't care about any useless prediction." Oblivion said, flipping her dark hair defiantly. Her lips formed into a smile as she added "Especially not when it comes from the Emperor's lap dog."

The Emperor's guard bared his fangs at this, something that greatly pleased Oblivion. She enjoyed being able to rile him up like this. It made these long and tedious meetings worth attending.

"Alois." The Emperor finally spoke. He didn't have time for bloodshed or petty squabbles. Not right now, at least. "Our esteemed guests have requested an audience with me. We'll grant them that much."

His guard had no choice but to comply, still growling as he retreated to his master's side. He hated allowing these ill-mannered people to speak to the Emperor like this, but he had no choice but to obey his commands. That was his duty after all.

"That said." The Emperor continued "Make it quick and worth my time. I have other things to do today, you know?"

Wasting no time in getting to the point, Revolver spoke. "I want to know what you plan to do when we execute our final plan. Will you try to oppose the Knights of Hanoi?"

Drumming his fingers along the side of his throne, the Emperor tilted his head forward in the darkness. "We'll see what happens when we get there. For now, I don't have any issue with you. We'll continue to work together as always."

The Emperor commanded a group of criminals known as Hoelle. They were involved in all manner of elicit activities online, recently having partnered with the Hanoi in order to keep a low profile. Hoelle provided them with necessary information and supplies while Hanoi drew the fire from SOL and the police. It was mutually beneficial up to a point.

"In the meantime." the Emperor continued, "Some of my men have found something in SOL Technologies that we might both be interested in. I should have it under control by tonight, so I'll get back to you when that happens."

Though he was dissatisfied with the weak answers, Revolver could do little to argue for the moment. "Fine," he said. "Then we'll return when that happens. That will be all for now." He logged out without another word.

Oblivion did the same moments later, though not before remembering to kick the dog again. "See you soon. Oh, and doggy, don't let your master forget to feed you." She disappeared after that.

Despite his guard's anger and the Hanoi's obvious displeasure with him, the Emperor didn't seem to care in the least. He merely resumed "trimming" at his hair with the razor. "You warned them," he said to the dog. "The only thing in store for their future is misfortune. They're puppets to fate like all the rest, and we control the strings. Hopefully they'll learn one of these days."

* * *

_**(Den Academy)**_

Down at the dump not far from Den City High School, a young man was being hassled by a pair of his classmates. This wasn't too out of the ordinary given their tendency to harass him, but the bullying had steadily escalated over the last few weeks. He thought it may have reached its peak when they stole his clothes and money last time, but he was wrong.

"Give us all you've got!" One of them demanded, shoving him against a wall. "Give it now and we won't hurt you much more. If you resist, though, I'm going to have to get a little meaner." He sneered. "I kind of hope you pick the second option, though." To prove his point, he pulled a small knife from his pocket.

"Enough is enough!" A voice called from behind. "Leave him alone!" It was a girl from their school, green eyes burning with justice even brighter than her crimson hair.

"You're going to stop us?" The lead bully said with a laugh, tossing his victim to his friend. "And what are you going to do?" He brandished his knife as menacingly as he could to try and scare her off.

In response, the girl confidently held out her cellphone. On the screen was a picture of the two attack another student. Scrolling through, numerous other pictures of similar incidents moved by. "I've got all of this on you. Everything you've been doing. If I wanted, I could send these off to the principal and the police. What do you think of that?"

The bullies shared a look with one another before they burst out laughing. Evidently, they didn't seem to care about the potential consequences of their actions.

Regardless, this provided the opening the girl was looking for. "Hey, run for it!" She shouted to the other student, having been released around the time his attackers began laughing. He made a break for it less than a second later, paying no mind to what might happen to his savior after this.

This got the two thugs' attention, their anger now pointed towards her. As one of them moved to jump her, another phone was hurled directly into his face. Why she had another one was anyone's guess, but it got the job done. Well, for a few seconds, at least.

"You..." The bully snarled. Redoubling their efforts, the two began to chase after the girl as she ran, all three stopping abruptly at the appearance of yet another person.

Evidently, she was also a member of their school judging by her clothes, though it was probably worth noting she was wearing the boy's version. Maybe she wanted it to look tough or maybe she just didn't like the skirt on the other. None of them really had time to speculate on the matter though given they were in the middle of a fight.

The new girl threw a trading card straight at one of the two bullies, hitting him in the forehead and sending him to the ground. "What's your problem?" The other said. "Why are you defending this idiot?"

She said nothing, staring him down with her icy glare. Even without words, her contempt for the bullies was evident.

Despite the obvious fear this invoked in him, he tried to bluster his way through. "I'm not afraid of you!" He lied, charging at her.

"Look out!" The girl shouted, expecting the worst.

Still, she remained unmoving. Facing the enemy head on, she easily dodged his attack towards her face with a well-timed block from one of her bandaged forearms. She responded by slamming him into the wall nearby, pulling his arm behind his back and pressing him into it. He tried to mumble something else incendiary but couldn't quite form the words with his face pushed into the bricks.

In the confusion, the other bully recovered from the card attack, running up to the redhead and pointing his knife at her throat. "You still want to be a hero?" He asked. "Let my guy go or this gets ugly."

"As if." She said, stomping on his foot with all her strength while wrenching his arm away from her neck. She wasn't about to get taken hostage by someone like this.

In that moment, the girl took the opportunity to toss the bully she'd pinned into the other, knocking both to the ground in a heap. Though most would simply cut their losses and escape to fight another day, these two were a unique brand of persistent and stupid, ready to get back up and try again.

The redhead took out her phone once again, already hitting a panic button to contact the police. "You have two options," she told the both of them as they staggered to their feet. "You can stick around here and fight some more before you get picked up by the cops or you can run and try to think of an explanation for all of this. It's your choice."

Realizing that the police would be here sooner rather than later given where they were, the two decided to sprint off in the opposite direction, leaving the girls behind.

The girl sighed, slumping against the wall. "Glad that's over," she said. "Thanks for your help. I don't think I'd have gotten out of that one if you didn't step in."

The other girl nodded. "You did well for yourself, but next time try calling someone you jump not danger." She turned to leave, though she was forced to stop when she felt an unfamiliar grip around her arm.

"Hey, don't go yet. I haven't even introduced myself. My name's Akatsuki Fujiota and I'm with the newspaper club." She put her hands on her hips, laughing haughtily. "I'm helping to protect the school on and off the page, though, as you can already tell. So, what's-" She was preparing to ask the girl for her name, realizing only now that she was long gone by that point.

"I can't believe it!" She shouted. "How rude can someone be? We just fought some people together!" Grumbling, she had no choice but to get over it, sprinting off to school to try and make it in time for the last bell. She made sure to collect the phone she threw before that though.

Out of sight, Yuritzi sighed, relieved at having dodged that conversation. She never liked speaking to others. They asked too many questions. And this one was a reporter, so who could say what she'd come up with.

Now though she had to worry about making it to class on time.

* * *

_**(Hours later: Link Vrains)**_

From a restricted area within Link Vrains, a solitary figuredawaited the appearance of the Lightning Hunter. Though an employee of SOL Technologies, he took it upon himself to work with the mysterious bounty hunter given their shared interest in taking down the Knights of Hanoi. While the company had to appear to condemn the actions of a vigilante within the virtual world, they secretly condoned and even encouraged these sorts of things. This was just one way they did that, the man known as Kryan being placed in charge of these backdoor dealings.

SOL's man twirled a small bit of metal between his fingers impatiently, green eyes staring out into the digital space expectantly. Being kept waiting wasn't what he wanted to do today. At the very least he expected anyone in his employ to at least show up on time. True, no one was late just yet, but each second forward was another second closer to that being the case.

Just as he thought this, a bolt of lightning struck the ground near him. He was unfazed by this, watching the flash die down and the dust settle to reveal the Hunter's approach. As always, their avatar was designed to conceal any hint of what their true form might be with a face-concealing helmet and a fully covering midnight blue bodysuit.

"Just barely on time, Lightning Hunter," the man said, sliding the metal bit into his cuff and straightening out the royal blue suit on his digital form. "Here I thought you might not show." Something resembling a Duel Monster's card materialized in his hand before he tossed it across the distance between the two. "Your pay, as well as the instructions for your next mission."

The Hunter caught it without a second thought between a pair of metallic fingers, absorbing the data. From inside their black visored helmet, they read what was imprinted on the card. "We need you to recover an object SOL needs at the location I've just sent you," Kryan summarized. "Do this well and it'll be your 49th successful mission for us. Who knows? I might even convince them you deserve some kind of promotion."

"I am not interested in being promoted," the Hunter replied coldly. "I am only here for the job." In truth, this was mostly a lie. Still, keeping your real motives a secret was fairly elementary in this line of work. Without another word, the vigilante disappeared in a bolt of lightning.

Kryan smiled, straightening the blood red tie around his neck. "Be careful, Lightning Hunter." He said, scorn dripping from each word.

* * *

_**(Link Vrains: Prince Square.)**_

"That's another afternoon I've got to spend fixing these things..." Tech Glitch grumbled while trying to repair her shattered cameras. It was nigh impossible to protect against whatever program the Lightning Hunter was using to ruin them initially, let alone get rid of it after the fact. Putting them back together was easy enough, but all the extra parts and the data that required cost money, something she didn't exactly have pouring in at the moment.

She sighed. "I'm a respected journalist in Link Vrains. Why do I have to put up with all this? I deserve top of the line equipment, not a pile of junk like this!"

"You'd be able to have a lot of nice things if you didn't get yourself caught up in all of that conspiracy theory stuff." Someone said after having logged in behind her mid-rant. That cartoonish avatar could be none other than the rival reporter known as Frog, accompanied as always by his cameraman, Pigeon.

"First of all, they're not just conspiracy theories," she said, crossing her arms indignantly. "I'm not just trying to clickbait on my blog, or something. I'm here uncovering the real secrets of Link Vrains. And second, I don't have any interest in covering a bunch of boring Charisma Duelists like you hacks."

Frog scoffed. "If you were smart, you'd change your tune right about now," he said with as superior a tone as he could muster. "They're about to resume the special tournament that got ruined by Playmaker the other day. If you're really lucky, maybe you'll even get some kind of exclusive."

"Assuming you don't steal it this time," she glared. As she'd said earlier, Tech Glitch had no interest in anything related to Charisma Duelists or the general culture of Link Vrains at large. When it came to Playmaker though she was always ready to jump in. Unfortunately, one of the people who'd seen him that day got to talking with Frog instead of her, cutting her out of the chance to break the news.

"It's not our fault if you can't show up on time," Pigeon told her from atop Frog's head. She didn't have a response to this given that the truth of the matter was she'd simply overslept.

"Look, we're not completely heartless," Frog said. "How about we cover this together? It's a big event so there's more than enough room. We'll share whatever information we find on whatever juicy scoops we come across, right? We'll even lend you an extra camera."

"Senpai, is this a good idea?" Pigeon worried. "She's our competition, you know."

With a chuckle, Frog struck a dramatic pose. "Maybe that's true, but at the end of the day, we're all journalists! The press has to stick together in these tough times!"

Though this whole thing was growing more and more embarrassing, Tech Glitch didn't really have a choice. Without their help, she'd just be stuck here trying to fix her equipment for hours on end, all of which could be better spent looking for something interesting to report on.

"I guess I accept." She finally said. Though she didn't like giving in to the pressure to report on whatever was trendy, she didn't have much of a choice now. On the bright side, maybe the extra traffic would get her enough ad revenue to afford some better supplies.

That hardly made her feel better though. This was definitely going to be a long day.

* * *

**_(Elsewhere in Link Vrains: A nearby rooftop.)_**

"Since Playmaker's last appearance, the Data Storm hasn't left Link Vrains. I went ahead and made you your own board and installed it on your duel disk last night. Figured you might start to need it." From the command center, Miguel spoke all of this to the Lightning Hunter.

"Thank you," they replied. "Anything else?"

"Still working on the stealth program, so you're going to have to wait on that" he replied. "Try not to get caught until then."

"That was probably out only option to avoid a fight. I'll do what I can, but I'm expecting hostiles."

As he listened, Miguel scanned the data coming in. "Hunter, there's something off about this area. I'm not really seeing any activity here. Doesn't seem like anyone's even there. It's almost like a ghost town."

"I'll be careful," they said simply. Careful would have to be a relative term considering the target was already in sight. It was an abandoned building somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. It looked old enough to collapse at any second, though considering it was just a bunch of code, that probably wouldn't happen. Still, a bit of cautious never hurt anyone.

Elsewhere, the tournament was in full swing near the main square. People from all over had gathered just to catch a glimpse of the Charisma Duelists together like this.

"So many challengers who can't wait to take on the five best Charisma Duelists in Link Vrains," Frog narrated to himself as Pigeon flew above to capture some footage. "Of course, I don't think any of them have a chance at winning."

"Aren't you being a little presumptuous?" Tech-Glitch asked. "Who's to say one of these rookies couldn't pull out a win?"

Both Frog and Pigeon laughed at this. "Be serious. Charisma Duelists are the strongest people in Link Vrains, and these five have been the strongest for a whole year. There's no way someone could come out of nowhere and beat one of them."

"They're always taking on new challengers to stay at the top of the weekly rankings, too," Pigeon added.

This gave Tech a moment of pause. "I guess I always thought they were all talk, you know?"

Frog rubbed his chin. "You're not a duelist, are you?"

"I'm not," she admitted. "My passion's always been with journalism, so I was never very good at it." Ironic considering she was always so preoccupied with discovering things related to Link Vrains' heroes.

"Then you're following the path of a true reporter," Frog nodded.

Down on the ground, the fun had just about begun. The Charisma Duelists were poised to take the stage. The first to appear was the towering titan of the wrestling arena, materializing into the middle of the spotlight and hoisting a champion belt above his head. "I'm here!" he announced to the cheering spectators. "GO Onizuka!"

Tech was a bit taken aback, both at the immense reaction of the crowd to just one person's appearance and to just how large GO looked in person.

"First time seeing him in the code?" Frog asked. "GO Onizuka's the number one duelist in all of Link Vrains right now, plus the most popular."

"Besides Playmaker, of course," Pigeon added.

Suddenly, everything began to shake. The tremors seemed localized around the ring in which GO stood, though he remained staunch and refused to so much as flinch. Several tense seconds of confusion and panic passed before an enormous crystal materialized in the middle of the air.

Apparently, this was all expected given GO's smirk. "So, this was all your doing," he said to the object. "Hurry up and end the theatrics so you can get out here, Number 3."

As if in response, the crystal began to crack, shattering to reveal a new duelist that descended to the stage. Dressed in a striking white outfit resembling a slightly modernized take on the Roman centurion armor, the third strongest duelist in Link Vrains stood in front of GO. Like many, she concealed her identity with a mask, the only clue to who might be under it were a few patches of purple hair coming out from under the helmet.

"The icy duelist, Crystaline!" Frog declared to Tech.

"You're one to complain about theatrics," Crystaline said to Go, voice measured and cold to match her persona. "Either way, I have no interest in fighting you. I've already got someone else in my sights."

GO smiled, crossing his arms. "Blue Angel's not here. Besides, this is just for show, so it won't affect our ranks no matter who wins." Despite virtually everyone besides Tech knowing about Crystaline's obsession with Blue Angel, no one was entirely sure why this was the case. Ever since appearing she appeared around a year back, her sole reason for climbing the rankings was apparently to face her foe in a fair fight.

Suddenly, the fun stopped. A group of people had infiltrated the crowd, able to be identified even among the many outlandish avatars due to their near-identical outfits of white, green, and bronze. Their faces were all covered with a half mask, as well, linking them as a group that wished to remain anonymous.

"Hey, those people..." Tech observed. _Wait, I know who they are. I read about them on some blogs_. She turned to Frog and Pigeon. "I have to go. Sorry to run out like this." She bolted from the roof after that.

"What's her problem?" Pigeon asked, Frog shrugging in response.

* * *

Elsewhere, Lightning Hunter proceeded to enter the building they'd found. It was a bit of challenge given the robust security on this allegedly abandoned building, but a handy program managed to disable the primary protection around a skylight and allow access to this obvious trap.

"If this is how much security they've got, I can guess why SOL might want this thing," Miguel commented. "Hey, I think there's something here. There's some kind of signal. I think it's interfering with my program."

"I'll proceed as planned," the Hunter said.

Walking down a dark corridor, the Hunter didn't detect any danger. Even if they had, it wasn't like they'd be afraid. This kind of thing was standard practice in their line of work. They'd been at this for years now, though this did little to reassure Miguel.

Suddenly, movement was heard from another room. A good ways off, the door to it began to thump, the Hunter running to investigate. "Are you seeing this?" they asked to their comrade.

"Yeah, but I don't know what I'm looking at. These readings are going crazy." What's more, his computer was starting to bug out, the video he was using to observe the situation overtaken with static as the rest of the screen began to distort and lag.

"Whatever they sent you to recover isn't-" That was the last thing the Hunter heard from the other end, communications fully breaking down and cutting off Miguel's access.

Put off by this and looking to retreat, the Hunter began to turn around. However, they stopped at the last moment, noticing a brief red glow from the door. Was it calling to them? Couldn't be. Yet they still felt compelled to walk towards it.

Placing a hand against it, a shine began to cover their vision. When it dissipated, they'd somehow unlocked a new room filled with wires racing across every conceivable surface. All of these seemed to connect into a central point at the back of the room, a glowing barrier blocking out what that might be.

A screen materialized in front of the Hunter, a man in shadows appearing in front of the camera. "Welcome, stranger," he greeted cheerfully in a garbled voice filter despite the shady nature of everything transpiring at this moment. "If you're watching this, I'm already dead. I've always wanted to say that."

He continued. "It's not easy to make it to this room. If you could, it means you're one of them." Absolutely none of that make any sense. The Hunter had no clues to this man's identity and his words didn't seem to be illuminating on the issue anytime soon. "I take full responsibility for everything that's happened to you. Myself and others destroyed twelve lives for nothing more than greed and self-interest."

This sent a jolt down the Hunter's spine. He couldn't be talking about ten years ago, could he? If he was, that meant he was involved with those events. From the sound of things, he might even be responsible. Could he even know about what might have happened with their parents?

All these questions and no answers. Considering the man was probably long dead since recording this, it would likely stay that way.

The video continued, only further clouding things. "Soon, things will begin to happen. It's going to be the result of what I'm about to give you." As he said this, the room began to change as several pedestals emerged from the floor in from of Lightning Hunter. "This is my life's work. Use it as your sword."

There were ten pedestals in total once things stopped moving, ten cards materializing on top of them. From the looks of things, they were Cyberse. How could there be more of them, let alone sitting in a place like this?

Involuntarily, each of the cards shot a ray of light into the Hunter's duel disk, transferring their data into it as they vanished. Analyzing it, they realized that there were also two new programs that came with them: Lightning Wings and Lightning Access.

"If all went well, you've obtained the programs," the man said. "That being said, the second was never fully complete. Despite its power, you won't be able to use it as his complete form until she recovers her memories." At that moment, the barrier at the end of the room began to open, breaking off into different hexagonal bits that fell away from whatever it was guarding. "She's part of something much larger, so use her to help you find the others."

The video shut off unceremoniously, leaving the Hunter alone with...whatever it was that they'd just been gifted. Approaching the end of the room, something akin to a duel disk's screen was revealed. Inside it was some kind of AI, similar in nature to the one in Playmaker's possession that SOL and the Hanoi were currently pursuing.

It was small, almost looking to be sleeping. A little gray lump covered in blue stripes with a small hoop hovering above her head. Slowly, the mass formed into a vaguely human shape, red eyes opening to look out at Lightning Hunter with what seemed to be great interest.

"I guess you're my partner," the AI proclaimed, immediately flying out of the screen too approach the Hunter. Turning her head to the side, she tapped the human's helmet, causing it to crumble away into data. Though Lightning Hunter's avatar had different hair and eyes (black and red, respectively), the face was unmistakably reminiscent of their true identity – Yuritzi.

"Stop that!" they shouted, recoiling from the intrusive act. "I can't reveal my face where someone might see me," they explained, trying to cover themselves.

The AI didn't seem to hear, or at least didn't feel like responding. She just continued to observe. "You seem to be a human. I've never met one of you before."

"Not even your creator?" Lightning Hunter asked, a bit perplexed. The man in the video created this AI from the sound of things. Shouldn't she have at least known him? Apparently not given that the program shook her head in response to the question.

This whole thing got odder the longer they thought about it. Whatever this AI was, her personality was far more advanced and robust compared to something you'd find in your standard duel disk. Almost human if that was possible. And the way she seemed so curious; it was like a child exploring the world for the first time, no social etiquette or grace to speak of.

"How old are you?" the Hunter finally asked.

"I don't know," the AI replied. "I'm not as old as you, human. I don't think so, at least."

"Shouldn't an AI at least remember when it was made?" they asked. "No idea? Not even about who might have made you or why?" Given the obvious connection between the two of them, they hoped maybe any shred of information this program could conjure up might reveal some detail of their own mysterious past.

"I don't know," the AI repeated. "I don't know when I was made or by whom. I also don't know who was on that video or why it was made. My memory only goes back to the beginning of this interaction." She darted about the room after that, exploring the various wires and bringing up different screens wherever possible, replaying the message from before.

"Well, I do feel like there's something I remember," the AI said suddenly to break the silence. "Three things, really. I don't know if they're memories or just something I was programmed to think while I was in stasis." Turning to face the Hunter, she raised three fingers on her blobby fist. "1: I am half of someone, but I have no idea who that person is. 2: My memories aren't important until the time is right and all the pieces fall into place. And 3: I must find a worth companion who understand the injustice of the past and wants to forge a better future for the twelve who suffered."

Lightning Hunter didn't really understand a word of that. She might as well have been speaking another language (maybe something like binary?). The gist seemed to suggest that this AI was only part of a larger whole, but what that whole might be was nigh-indecipherable at the moment. Still, those "three reasons" seemed familiar, at least in the way they were delivered. It was something the Hunter remembered being told to do by their parents.

Trying their best to have something approaching compassion for a creature made of data, they said, "I understand what you're going through. I'm not really clear on my past, either."

The AI thought for a moment. "I think our pasts might be connected," she surmised. "And if that's the case, it would be advantageous if we were to work together. If we did that, we might be able to figure something out."

If nothing else, she was surprisingly agreeable. Extending their hand, Lightning Hunter said, "Then we'll be a team."

In response, the AI squinted her eyes at the human. "I don't understand what you're doing. Do you want something? I don't have anything. Absolutely nothing."

"Humans make agreements with each other like this. Shaking hands."

The AI nodded. "I see. Humans seem more expressive than I thought." Taking the Hunter's hand in her much smaller one, she asked, "Will you agree to teach me about human culture, too?"

"I don't see why not," the Hunter nodded.

"Then our agreement is final, human."

"For the record," they spoke, "while we're in Link Vrains, I'm not a human. I'm just the Lightning Hunter. Nothing more, nothing less."

"I understand," the AI said, though that may have been a lie.

* * *

"I know I saw those guys before. I just can't remember what group they belonged to. Not Hanoi, but..." Tech Glitch muttered to herself while observing the masked men from out of sight. Some of them were talking after escaping the crowd, though they were just out of reach from where she could hear. Scanning the area, her eyes fell upon a dumpster near a shop conventionally right next to the people she was concerned with. Hopping on top of that could let her climb to the roof and listen in from above.

Thanking Link Vrains' commitment to realism, she sneaked through the other people and made it to where she needed to be. Climbing up to the roof, she positioned herself somewhere she could hide. "Showtime," she whispered, activating the camera on loan from her colleagues to record whatever it was that was about to go down. Focusing on one of three men clustered together, she managed to get a good image of his masked face.

Unfortunately, she hadn't been quite as stealthy as she thought. The man she'd trained her camera on reacted, shouting, "You must be stupid if you thought you could get away with all of this!"

Sensing that it may be time to run, Tech turned around only to be met with the end of a rifle pointed at her face by someone else. The would-be shooter looked small – small enough to be her child brother, even – and in no way befitting the green military fatigues and fur coat ensemble he wore. Of particular note was a matching hat, some kind of pin in the shape of the letter H embedded in its front.

Though her attention was understandably drawn by the gun, her eyes finally drifted to the boy's side where she saw another much taller person. She seemed to be styled after a geisha, or at least a kitschy send up to the profession. Her purple hair was an impressive mimic of the traditional style though the purple and pink kimono was more like a long-sleeved skirt covered in ribbons, exposing black stocking-covered legs and platform shoes.

"Looks like your luck ran out," the boy said, wild smile across his face as he prepared to pull the trigger. "Any last-" He hesitated as Tech began to laugh, mood doing a complete turnaround as he exploded in fury. "Who the hell do you think you're laughing at?"

"How am I supposed to be scared of some little military manlet?" she choked out over her laughter.

His companion tried to comfort him, patting his back. "I'm sure it's just the fear making her say these things, Deus." It was hard to tell whether she was mocking him, too.

Stomping his foot, he replied, "Any normal person would be terrified of me! Especially when I've got a huge gun pointing in their face! This ain't normal, Wistra!"

"Oh, you're very scary," she reassured him. "Even I'm afraid of you. I've got chills running up and down my spine right this second." Her pretend trembling did little to make him feel better, probably hurting his pride even more.

Their bizarre antics gave Tech the chance she needed to escape. Turning up the flash as high as it would go on her camera, she shot the two and blinded them for just long enough to make a run for it. It also had the added bonus of getting their pictures.

"Damn it!" Deus swore. "Don't just stand their with your thumbs up your asses, go find her!" The men on the ground responded immediately to his ranting, taking off after Tech.

She managed to get a good lead on her pursuers, snapping a picture from behind before deciding to mock them. "Sorry, can't play games right now, but thanks for all the pics. I bet SOL would like to know who's messing around in their game." As so often happened, her need to gloat proved to be her undoing as a crack of Deus' riffle fired a bola that wrapped her up, subsequently preventing her attempts to log out.

Deus, Wistra, and the rest of their crew approached her as she struggled on the ground. "Thought we were going to make it easy for you, spy?" Deus boasted. "Now, how about you make yourself useful as our decoy."

The girl was in trouble as she watched the men gathering in front of her. Deus standing at the front

"Those four little limbs were made for dancing! Fulfil their purpose and then decay off into the pits of hell!" The General cackled as he continued "We, the soldiers of the Emperor, will take our rightful position. The Emperor has decreed it and so it shall be! So! The worthless swine who oppose us, lay your lives on the line! Submit all of yourself with a triumphant war cry!"

* * *

The main square was packed with people, all of them there to watch the white hot battle taking place between Crystaline and GO Onizuka. They were a few turns in now and neither was letting up, the immaculate display of dueling prowess awing everyone in attendance. Even Blue Angel, fellow charisma duelist who wasn't meant to be here at the time, took notice of their skills.

She wasn't out in the crowd, of course. She simply watching the duel from a small room in a nearby building. Several spaces like this existed around Link Vrains – small reserved areas for Charisma Duelists and other VIPs where they could mingle with others like them without having to deal with the common folk. It was like a luxury box at a sporting event with a better view.

"What do you think about Crystaline?" another asked from a comfortable chair beside her, a wide grin and mischievous squint of her red eyes doing little to hide her anticipation for some catty remark. This was Pink Reaper, current holder of the Number 5 rank among Charisma Duelists, a title held by her partner Duke who couldn't be bothered to make it to the event.

She was every bit as ostentatious as Blue Angel herself in terms of avatar, though in the opposite direction. In contrast to the former's idol theme, Pink was punk through and through. Two pairs of pink ponytails topped her pale head, occasionally covered by the scarlet hood on the cape draped over her shoulders. Obviously not one to deny attention of any kind, her combination of a short red skirt and a yellow jacket with nothing on underneath it besides a black brassier covered in skulls seemed designed to provoke.

"What do you mean?" Blue Angel finally replied, raising an eyebrow. "Just another duelist."

Almost surprised by the answer, Pink Reaper waved her hand and folded one leg over the other in her seat. "Come on, don't give me that. She's your rival, right?" She leaned a bit closer. "Aren't you even a little curious why she's after you? Maybe it's something juicy, like you stole her boyfriend. Or maybe you bullied her in school and now she wants revenge. You seem like the type who'd do that."

Blue Angel sighed, not wanting to play this game with Pink. "If you think it's so interesting, duel her yourself. Since your ranking is lower than mine, you'd be the next step for her anyway."

She pouted, unable to get the kind of reaction she wanted out of the girl. Shaking her head around like a maniac, she swung both arms around like she was throwing a tantrum. "I'd never fight someone like that! I can only duel when my Duke is with me! We're inseparable soulmates! A united front! Fated lovers who can never part!" On the field, Pink Reaper was known for her brilliant and beautiful tactics. Off it, she was known primarily for being immature, petty, and a headache for anyone she felt like teasing that day.

"Right," Blue Angel said, growing more tired with all of this by the second. "You don't fight by yourself. I forgot." She elected to begin ignoring her after this point, focusing her gaze back to the action on the duel field.

Outside, the duel raged on. GO had already called out his ace monster, Gouki the Great Ogre, complimenting it with two face-down cards. Despite being behind with only 1300 Life Points, it was all going just as planned.

His opponent was ahead at 2100, field containing two icy dragon monsters with 2400 and 1900 ATK each, as well as a Field that turned the stage into a frozen wasteland.

"Go, GO Onizuka!" one person shouted from the crowd.

"You can win, Crystaline!" another yelled in response. "Freeze everything with your dragon!" While support was more or less even for both duelists, it almost seemed like Crystaline was the one with the more vocal fans this time.

Hearing this among all the other noise in the area, the cold-hearted duelist actually smiled just a touch. Regardless of anything else, being able to entertain the crowd was a nice sensation. "Looks like I'm stealing your crowd, GO Onizuka. Still feel like the number 1?"

With a grin, GO replied, "Don't get ahead of yourself. There's a reason we're here in the first place."

"That would be the entertain the audience with our struggle, to prove whose resolve is stronger." She pounded her fist against her chest, raising it right after to the crowd's cheers. "And I'm about to prove that it's me! I have the will to make my dreams reality! First ranked or not, you'll fall before me like the rest!"

With a laugh, GO mirrored her movements, pounding his fist on his chest and proclaiming, "Then I'll show everyone that my determination can't be beat no matter how hard the struggle! My pride won't falter and neither will my duel!"

"You're both so annoying!" a voice screeched from above, confusing both the duelists and audience.

"Who do you think you are interrupting us like that?" GO questioned, shaking his fist in the air. "Come out and we'll settle this like real duelists!" In response, a series of explosions went off around the area, buildings crumbling as the data that formed their structure disintegrated into nothingness.

The crowd panicked, running in different directions for fear of what might be happening. "What the hell is going on?" Crystaline swore, her field disappearing as the duel came to an abrupt halt. She barely had time to finish her sentence before a chunk of concrete came hurtling towards her head.

"Crystaline!" GO shouted, tackling her out of the way a fraction of a second before being hit. "Don't get too distracted," he said, getting to his feet and offering her a hand up from the ground. "There's at least a 90% chance this wasn't an accident."

Taking his hand, Crystaline stood up. "We don't get to finish the duel and now you're saving my life. I'm a little ashamed, honestly." She dusted herself off, eyes darting from place to place to try and locate the culprit and any more debris threatening to crack her in the head.

"We'll have plenty of time to continue later," GO said as he prepared to fight whoever it was that had the gall to attack Link Vrains like this. "For now, we just have to find who did this. I don't think anyone else could handle this type of thing right now."

"Such a touching show of friendship," the voice boomed, this time seeming to come from a swirling vortex that touched down in front of the stage. "Almost makes me want to puke!" The whirlwind eventually dispersed, revealing the speaker to be none other than Deus flanked by his men.

"So, are you Hanoi?" Crystaline asked immediately, seemingly unimpressed by their actions up to this point. "Doesn't seem like your style."

Forcing out the most sinister cackle he could muster, Deus smiled wickedly as he replied, "Unfortunately for you, you silly little girl, we're not Hanoi. We're much, much worse." Neither of the duelists seemed convinced by his act.

"I don't care who you are," GO told him. "Call yourself the ambassador of Candy Land for all I care. Just go back to wherever you crawled out from and leave Link Vrains alone." Cracking his knuckles, he added, "And if you ever think you can interrupt one of my duels again, I'll be happy to send you back there myself."

"We're not intimidated by a Charisma Duelist," Deus said. "This is just to send a message. Now we just need to wait until the true heroes of Link Vrains get here."

Crystaline scoffed. "Then why wait? We're already here." GO shared this sentiment, ready to come to blows without further hesitation.

Deus grinned, snapping his fingers to signal Winstra. She floated down from the sky carrying the captured Tech-Glitch, arms and legs bound with energy bands.

"You cowards!" GO shouted.

"What are you planning to do with her?" Crystaline asked, disgusted at their use of a hostage.

Grabbing Tech by the neck, Deus tried to appear intimidating once again. "Oh, nothing much. She's just bait for-" He screamed at the top of his lungs, tossing his hostage away and waving his hand, blowing on the glowing red spot from where she'd bitten him. "You messed me up!"

"Are you okay?" Winstra asked, trying to sooth his injured pride more than his hand. "There, there. It's okay now. The big, bad girl won't hurt you again."

To call this a confusing and awkward scene for the Charisma Duelists (and Deus' troops) was an understatement. This guy was supposed to be serious, right? Terrorist or not, he was stomping around like a child while looking like an absolute ass in front of everyone.

"Don't underestimate those Charisma Duelists," Tech said from the ground. "They might look stupid but they're tough. Way tougher than you chumps." Her bonds tightened remotely for her insolence.

"You talk too much," Deus snarled. "Now shut up and let the adults speak."

"What do you think you're going to gain from all this?" GO asked him.

Deus snapped his fingers, his men crossing their arms over their chests and bowing in response. "Men, what is out mission?" he shouted at a far greater volume than someone so small should be capable of. He was almost genuinely intimidating when he said that.

The troops began to chant in unison. "Absolute extermination! Not a single enemy should be spared!"

"That's right!" Deus shouted back. "None of these maggots are getting away, understood? Let's live up to our name and create a living hell!" He waved his arms wildly in the air, mimicking a conductor at a symphony. For all his theatrics though, his orders were only to surround the two duelists.

GO and Crystaline stood back to back, ready to face the oncoming threat. Their odds weren't exactly great given just how thoroughly they'd been cornered. That said, neither of them was ready to lay down and die without some kind of fight.

"I always thought I'd go out in a different way," Crystaline spoke. "But I guess I can take some satisfaction in having fought beside the number 1 Charisma Duelist in Link Vrains.

"Sounds like you've changed your tune from all that boasting before," GO smirked.

"I only regret I couldn't have taken that title from," she continued with a smile.

"Save all that for after we get out of here," he said. "You'll have another chance to lose to me later."

Uncomfortable with not being the center of attention for more than a few seconds, Deus shouted, "Soldiers, prepare the recordings! I want everyone in Link Vrains to see what's going to happen." A few of his troops hanging back materialized a few cameras between their hands, streaming this encounter across the internet. In Link Vrains alone, every remaining screen in the square changed to show this view of the duelists.

Grabbing one of the cameras, Deus focused it on himself. "To all the people in Link Vrains, we've got a special show for you today." Though he couldn't see it for himself, he was certain of the fear and confusion those tuning in were experiencing. "Watch in horror as your Charisma Duelists fall before our ranks!"

A haphazard and one-sided duel began, GO and Crystaline forced to battle the totality of Deus' forces all at once. "The Knights of Hanoi may have attack before simply to spread fear, but we are different," he monologued, raising a hand to the sky. "We're here to destroy everything! Nothing will be spared from us, Hoelle!"

Pointing directly towards the screen, his smile broadened. "Send us your heroes! We'll beat every last one of them! Playmaker and Lightning Hunter must arrive immediately or we'll detonate the code deletion bombs we have planted around Link Vrains!" Several locations across the network flashed across the screen, presumably the locations of the bombs. Many were highly trafficked at this very moment.

"So that's what he was after," Tech muttered to herself. "He wants to take them both out at once. Probably trying to steal that AI Playmaker has with him, too."

The devilish Machiavellian laughter was heard and with his fingers Deus fashioned a gesture similar to a gun, pointing it at his own head. "So come heroes of Link Vrains! Or the whole system will be finished!" He said, firing the trigger as the screen goes blanck.

* * *

_**(Command Room)**_

"Come on, don't crap out on me," Miguel ordered his computer as he furiously banged against the keys. He was trying everything he could possibly think of to reestablish the connection within Link Vrains. Who knows what could be happening to Yuritzi right now?

As he pounded away, he failed to notice the approach of his sister. Only after she pushed open the door did he whirl around in his chair, spotting her standing a ways off from him while rubbing the sleep from her eyes in a full sized Kuriboh kigurumi.

"Oh, you're up," he said, realizing the futility of speaking when she couldn't even look at his lips (not that she could read them either way). Waiting for her to have a clear line of sight, he began to sign at her. _"Sorry, I hope I'm not worrying you. We're just doing some of the usual stuff and there was a snag."_

_"You looked really upset,"_ she replied to him, crossing the room to be closer to him._ "Is Yuritzi okay?"_

He hesitated in replying long enough to almost certainly give himself up but still tried to hide the details from his sister regardless. _"She's fine, just on a mission like always. I'll have her come see you when she's back, so go watch some TV for a little bit."_

Maria moved closer, puffing out her cheeks and furrowing her brow to demand further answers. It was impossible to resist her when she did this. A sure kill move, she was as threatening as she was cute.

As Miguel struggled to find a way out, his computer tossed him the life preserver he needed as the screen came alive once again. A beeping noise combined with a pop up on the screen drew the two's attention, Yuritzi finally reestablishing contact since things fell apart earlier.

"Glad you're back, Yuritzi," Miguel spoke into his microphone, Maria watching over his shoulder. She tapped him on the shoulder after a moment, pointing towards a small detail in the corner of the screen – the AI popping out from Lightning Hunter's duel disk. "Hey, you make a friend? What's that on your arm?"

Taking a moment to jump from the building and fly off, the Hunter replied, "I'll explain later. I don't want to say anything while I'm still in the network." Deciding to actually pay attention to the video playing in their restored helmet, they noticed Miguel was uncharacteristically joined by his sister. "Why's she in the command room?" they asked tersely.

"Lightning Hunter, are these humans mistaking you for some other human with a different name?" the AI asked, suddenly realizing something. "Those are other humans," she stated. "The second and third human I've ever seen. This is quite exciting. I haven't even been awake for a day and so many things are already happening."

"Relax, there's plenty of humans out there," the Hunter told her. Shifting focus back to the original issue, they asked Miguel again, "Why is Maria in there with you? She's not supposed to be involved."

"Just came in to check on me," he replied. Both of them tended to keep Maria as distant as possible from the action given (at least in their opinion) she wasn't in a mental place to be able to handle so much association to the horrors of three years ago especially with the loss of her hearing.

With initializing a sibling out of the way, Miguel tried to change the subject. "Did you hear about those guys who attacked the main square yet?" he asked.

"No, I just got out of that place. Send me whatever you have." Projected in front of the Hunter were several articles already slapped together about the attack, social media feeds abuzz with speculation and anger, as well as a recorded speech given by a diminutive man going by the name of Deus. "Playmaker and Lightning Hunter must arrive immediately or we'll detonate the code deletion bombs we have planted around Link Vrains."

"It's a trap," Miguel correctly identified. "There's no guarantee they won't still blow the place if you show up."

"Yeah, you're right," Lightning Hunter agreed. "But if I don't go, there's a 100% chance they'll detonate them. I can't risk hurting other people just to save myself. Besides, I won't be able to figure out who they are if I don't pay them a visit first."

With a sigh, the Hunter's partner was forced to admit that this was all true. "Couldn't you at least wait for Playmaker to show up first?" he asked. "Maybe use it to get the drop on them."

"I've been taking on the Knights of Hanoi for a while now. I think I can handle some clowns with a few bombs." While confidence was not in short supply, they said this mostly to try and reassure Miguel. "Turn on the captions for me," they added.

Miguel did so, a program running to turn their speech to text along the bottom of his screen. The next thing said would be direct towards Maria. "Hey, I know this doesn't make a lot of sense right now, but we'll talk about it later. I've got some stuff to do right now and I'll be honest and say it's not entirely safe. Don't worry about me, though. I promise I'll make it back."

Without even a moment of hesitation, Maria responded, _"I'm not worried about you. I know you'll always come back from this stuff. So does my brother even if he doesn't act like it. You're the strongest person there is and nothing will stop you."_

This brought a smile to the Hunter's face. They gave a quick and triumphant thumbs up to her before shifting back to business. "Tell SOL I'm quitting after all this is over. We can talk about terms or whatever later."

"Yeah, sure," Miguel replied, shrugging off his astonishment at both Maria's display of unquestioning faith as well as the revelation that they were apparently out of a job as of today. "Good luck, then. Make it back in one piece, Lightning Hunter."

"Obviously," they said. "I can't leave you two alone. You can't make it without me." The communication link shut off before Miguel's objections could be lodged.

"That was an interesting encounter," the AI said, as the two hitched a ride on a data stream heading straight for the main square. "According to those humans, you're about to lead us into some kind of danger. Why didn't you listen to them?"

The Hunter chuckled. "Humans are complicated. Honestly, I don't even know if I understand it myself."

This did nothing to answer the AI's question. In fact, it just made things even more confusing. She'd still stick this out either way. Frankly, even these bizarre humans were preferable to sitting around in stasis for a second more. Besides, danger or not, what was about to happen sounded pretty exciting.

* * *

"Run out of energy?" Crystaline asked, the exhaustion she felt masked by sheer force of will. "Number 1 Charisma Duelist or not, you look like you're about to drop."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," he replied, forcing a triumphant smile as the Hoelle forces closed in. "Just catching my breath before my second wind kicks in."

Winstra and Deus watched from a distance with Tech at their feet. The commander almost felt like applauding the efforts of the two duelists, impressed by how many of their people the unlikely duo managed to eliminate despite such a major handicap. "Such strong teamwork from these weaklings," he said with a smile.

Smiling wider, Deus shooed his troops away. "So strong, I think they've earned a chance to see the strength of one of Hoelle's commanders in person!" Pointing forward as his men cleared a path, he shouted, "Which one of you is going to be first to face the power of Deus? I'll crush you under my boot along with the hope of any of you Charisma Duelist hacks!"

Though exhausted, both GO and Crystaline weren't about to back down. Looking to each other, they shared a knowing look before the former stepped up. "I'll be-" Before GO could continue, the crack of thunder rang out through the sky.

This sudden weather phenomenon startled several within the group, many of the soldiers looking to the sky to see whether some kind of weather program was acting up. "Something's coming," one of them said, pointing towards the clouds just in time for a group of them to tumble out of the way and avoid a bolt of lightning.

The lightning release some kind of shockwave, the Hoelle soldiers' duel disks seeming to malfunction and cancel their still-active fields. Deus himself would have been afflicted by this if not for the quick action of Winstra, jumping in front of him and projecting some kind of pink shield in front of both of them. "Are you okay, Deus?" she said, pulling him close to look him over."

"I'm fine," he grumbled, shoving her away as he tried to hide the faint blush along his cheeks. "Quit making me look bad."

"What was that?" GO questioned, looking around at all of his recent opponents' sudden malfunctions.

"I've deactivated your duel disks," a distorted voice explained. "You won't be able to abuse your cards again for at least a few hours.

"Is that Playmaker?" Crystaline asked GO.

"No, that doesn't sound like him," he replied, remembering their previous encounter well enough to not mistake him for anyone else.

An added bonus to the shockwave from before was that it managed to deactivate Tech's restraints, allowing her to quietly scamper away into the shadows. Safe and no longer in captivity, she produced her own camera and pointed it towards the sky. She was the only here who knew immediately who this was. "You finally showed up, Lightning Hunter."

Another bolt of lightning struck the ground, this time in front of the Charisma Duelists. Both covered their eyes from the light.

Crystaline watched in amazement as the beam dispersed and watched the figure of Link Vrains' hunter, rising from the ground, just staring at both of Hoelle's commanders.

"So that's Lightning Hunter," GO spoke, checking the duelist up and down with a mixture of intrigue and suspicion.

Deus smiled with glee, approaching one of his opponents now that they'd arrived. He tried his best to appear threatening as he marched over. He failed at this, though he did manage to grab the attention of the Hunter's AI.

"Lightning Hunter, what's wrong with that human's face?" she asked, materializing out of the duel disk in a miniaturized form. This seemed to irritate Deus despite his best attempts to look unbothered by the comment, another fact she noted.

"I told you to stay inside my duel disk," the Hunter told her. "It's dangerous for people to see you with me."

"That's true, but partners should face dangerous situations together," the AI said.

Barging in and refusing to be ignored, Deus tried again. "Lightning Hunter, I was waiting for you for so long. Where you scared to face me?"

The Hunter didn't answer him, more concerned with the soldiers surrounding the area and the destruction they'd caused. "I don't know why you think you're scaring anyone," they said. "You need all these people to come back you up and most of them were already taken out by the two over there. It's pathetic."

Before he could say anything else, the Hunter continued to speak. "I'll beat you just like you want. That means I'll be taking whatever I need to deactivate those bombs from you after."

"Looks like our data on you was right on the money," Deus said, exaggerating his expression even further. "You'll throw yourself into harm's way just to protect others. That's pathetic if you ask me."

"No one did," they replied.

Ignoring this, he gave the terms of the duel. "Naturally, if anyone tries to back out of this fight, the bombs go off automatically. They'll take out at least half of Link Vrains, people included. I wonder what's going to happen to all those people after their data gets erased."

"We won't find out," the Hunter said, duel disk producing its blade.

A Data Storm began to brew around them at that moment, the two swept up into the air as the others on the ground huddled against the ground to keep from being blown away. Watching the two get carried up into the sky, Winstra muttered a small, "Take care, Deus," before the two looked to be taking control of their ascension.

In moments, both were riding the storm on their boards, shouting, "Speed Duel!" in unison after they began to travel down the glowing stream of data.

"A Speed Duel," Crystaline spoke as the two flew off into the air. This was the first time she'd actually seen one up close. "Is this what it was like before, Onizuka?"

He didn't answer her, staring off into the distance. He cracked a smile, boldly stating to himself, "Lightning Hunter, Playmaker, or anyone else. I won't get left behind by any of them."

The Hunter's AI began to analyze the Data Storm as they passed through it, reeling at just how strong the current was. "This can't be a human's work," she said. "The code is too complex. Even I can barely understand it."

"Can you tell where it came from? Who made it?" Lightning Hunter was intrigued at the idea that even an AI like this couldn't decipher the storm.

"I'm not sure, but whoever did must be some kind of genius. I didn't think humans could be that."

Elsewhere, another person logged into Link Vrains. Standing atop a building, he and the AI poking from his duel disk observed Lightning Hunter and the ensuing battle. He'd been called here by Hoelle but was seemingly no longer the focus of their attack.

"Achoo!" The purple blob wiped the area that would have been his nose, the sense that someone was talking about him bringing on the outburst. "That was weird. I wonder if I've got some kind of virus."

"Be quiet," he told him. "Besides, you're an AI. There's no reason you should sneeze."

He blinked. "Huh, I guess you're right." Turning his attention back to the two duelists flying across the horizon, he asked, "So, are we going to join the fight?" There was no response, at least not immediately.

Back at the Data Storm, Deus blasted past the Hunter on his black board, flipping through the air to flaunt his supposed superiority. Staying just in front of them and hampering any attempt to pass, he turned around to shout, "Whoever passes that building gets the first turn, right?"

"Right," Hunter agreed, attempting to edge closer and closer to Deus for a chance at passing. The sides of their boards tapped against each other, tossing sparks into the stream of data behind them. Both duelists leaned forward to try and secure their position in front, unwilling to let the other sense even a moment's weakness.

In an instant, Lightning Hunter managed to tear out in front Deus, their opponent slowing down to avoid crashing into them from behind. Those few seconds of hesitation cost him, the gap between the two widening enough to make the idea of a comeback within the next few yards nearly impossible.

"That was easier than expected," the AI mused. Her demeanor changed a second later. "Almost too easy."

The Hunter was inclined to agree, looking back to see Deus smiling. That wasn't exactly unusual given everything they'd seen of him so far, but it was a bit odd for someone to be this agreeable after losing a contest of strength.

"Here I thought you'd be more interesting," Deus sneered, snapping his fingers to point towards the nearby building. "Do it!" he shouted.

"Got it!" Winstra replied from the ground, happily slamming her hand down onto a comically large red button on her duel disk screen. Explosions went off from inside the building at that, the structure cracking in half and beginning to fall just as Lightning Hunter passed under it.

The Hunter disappeared underneath the collapsing building and rubble, Deus taking the opportunity to launch right over the top of it. He landed on the other side, watching his work as it crashed into the ground. Cackling into the air as dust and debris swirled in the air, he triumphantly declared, "I win!"

His laughter abruptly stopped as Lightning Hunter pulled up beside him. Doing a double take, he shouted, "What? How?"

"I went inside it and then got out," they said dryly.

"Since when could you do that?" he demanded. He simply couldn't fathom that his plan hadn't worked.

Frankly, the Hunter wasn't sure how that worked, either. But there they were, not ready to lay down and die from a trick like that. "Either start the duel or surrender," they told him. "I don't have time to talk about the art of running through buildings with you."

Despite his anger, Deus' smile returned. "Fine, I get it." After another round of obnoxious laughter, he yelled a decisive, "Duel!" to begin the game.

Deus drew his hand of four cards, smiling at what he'd gotten. That or he was just smiling like he normally did. It was impossible to tell. Taking one of the cards, he placed it to the field while reciting, "The damned toy of a demon, use the flames of Hell as your wings to appear now! Infernal Puppeteer Lucifer!" **[Hand 4-3]**

The puppet in question floated in front of Deus, flames jetting from numerous holes across its pale body and running up the strings attached to it. The mask-like face of the creature was divided into four ragged sections as if it had been shattered by some blow to it.

_**Infernal Puppeteer Lucifer 0 ATK / 0 DEF / Fire / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect **_

"Lucifer lets me search an Infernal Puppeteer Magic or Trap when I summon it," he explained, taking something from his deck. **[Hand 3-4]**

"Well played, sir," the voice of the standard duel disk AI spoke from Deus' arm. "Will you proceed with this strategy as outlined?"

"Of course," he replied to it. Pointing towards the sky, a portal emerged overhead while his monster began to glow. "The circuit of burning flames will be forged with the cries of agony from our enemies! I set Infernal Puppeteer Lucifer in the Link Marker!"

His monster transformed into a swirling vortex of fire, hitting the bottom arrow on the portal. "Arrowhead confirmed! The summoning condition is one Infernal Puppeteer monster. Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Come forth, Link-1! Infernal Puppeteer Zeltron!"

Emerging from the portal was another doll-like creature, this one hanging by only a single burning string along on side. Its shattered face was much more ruined than the previous, fire visible underneath through the missing sections.

_**Infernal Puppeteer Zeltron 0 ATK / Fire / Link Markers: Bottom / Fiend / Effect **_

"I'll set three cards to end my turn," Deus said, his cards briefly appearing in front of him before dematerializing out of the way. [**Hand 4****-1] **

"That's a bit unusual," the Ignis spoke. "For someone who wants to make others fearful, all he's done is play two monsters without any power."

The Hunter noticed this, replying with their own observation. "You don't have any memories, correct? Then how do you know about dueling like this?" Basic as that comment was, it did indeed imply at least cursory knowledge of the game mechanics.

"That's because I was able to spend my time in stasis analyzing Duel Monsters," she explained. "It's the only thing I really know about anymore."

At the very least, this would hopefully mean the AI wouldn't be a complete hindrance during the duel. Drawing a card, the Hunter began the turn.** [Hand 4-5]** "I discard a card in order to summon Cyberse Jaeger Thunder Tiger to the field." **[Hand 5-3**] A bolt of lightning fell from the sky, crashing in front of the Hunter's field. From out of it pounced an electrifying creature lugging the contents of an armory across its back, howling with the sound of thunder.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Thunder Tiger 2000 ATK / 1000 DEF / Light / Level 5 / Cyberse / Effect **_

"Next, I'll summon Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman." Another card was placed on the field, a mechanical swordsman emerging from a second lightning bolt and flashing a pair of Japanese-inspired energy swords in front of the enemy.** [Hand 3-2]**

_**Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman 1500 ATK / 1000 DEF / Earth / Level 4 / Cyberse / Effect **_

"Normal Summoning a Cyberse monster activates the effect of the card in my Graveyard," the Hunter continued. "Without a monster in my Extra Monster Zone, I can revive Cyberse Jaeger Quick Bunny to the field." A third lightning bolt appeared, this time rising from below into the sky. The blue robotic rabbit hopped from it to fill the last Main Monster Zone, cleaning its yellow ears and face in a simulation of the creature it was based on.

**_Cyberse Jaeger Quick Bunny 300 ATK / 300 DEF / Light / Level 1 / Cyberse / Effect _**

"I guess this really is a Cyberse deck," Deus said. "Looks like Playmaker isn't as special as everyone thinks." He began to cackle. "But either way, these weak monsters can't beat my Puppeteer!"

"Precisely, sir," his AI spoke to further stroke his ego. "I calculate the opponent has exactly a 0.0% chance of defeating you." This made him laugh even louder.

"I would advise against attacking without knowing the full extent of his strategy," the Hunter's companion said. This received only a small scoff in response. "Do you want to say something?" she asked.

"It seems like those simulations didn't teach you much," the Hunter replied. Continuing the turn, they declared, "I set a card and enter the Battle Phase." [Hand 2-1] Raising a hand, Hunter Swordsman began to glow. "This activates my effect, raising the power of all my Cyberse monsters by 300." The monster smacked its blades together, showering sparks down on itself and its companions.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Thunder Tiger ATK: 2000 + 300 = 2300 **_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman ATK: 1500 + 300 = 1800 **_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Quick Bunny ATK: 300 + 300 = 600 **_

"Hunter Swordsman will make the first attack," they declared, the monster leaping forward to slash at the puppet.

Deus laughed again. "That just activates my monster's effect! Attacking it allows me to summon another monster from my deck, so come forth, Infernal Puppeteer Asmodeus!"

_**Infernal Puppeteer Asmodeus 0 ATK / 0 DEF / Fire / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect **_

The monster in question was a puppet like the others, its squat little body contrasted against the gangling limbs that shook about in the air as bright yellow flames overtook them.

"Either way, it doesn't seem like it matters," the AI said. "Your monsters both have no ATK, so you'll still take the same damage no matter what."

"You might want to check again," Deus said, activating one of his set cards. "I play the Continuous Trap, Infernal Puppeteer Guard!" The card depicted Lucifer standing in front of another monster with some sort of shield, blocking a blast of energy directed at the two of them. "This means I won't lose any Life Points when one of my Main Monster Zone monsters is destroyed in battle."

The attack was shifted to Asmodeus, Hunter Swordsman slicing the puppet to pieces and showering fire onto the field. As explained, this did nothing to harm Deus as a barrier formed to protect him from damage.

"That didn't do much for him," the AI said, undeterred by this momentary slowdown of their strategy. "You've got more monsters, meaning the next attack should do plenty of damage."

"Then just try it," Deus mocked. "I'm wide open. Zeltron's waiting for it."

The Hunter stayed collected at this, merely pointing forward. "Thunder Tiger attacks your monster." On that order, the created let out a roar and took aim with its weapons.

Deus sneered, opening his arms wide. "Then Zeltron's other effect activates now. Instead of attacking it, you're attacking me!" A barrage of rockets exploded around him, missing the Link Monster entirely.

The amount of damage he received from this seemed strange, however. "When I'm attacked directly," he explained, "I can discard Infernal Puppeteer Leviathan from my hand, halving the damage." [Hand 1-0]

_**Deus LP: 4000 – (2300/2) = 2850 **_

Undeterred, the Hunter continued the assault. "Quick Bunny, attack!" The monster leaped forward, kicking Deus in the chest before bouncing back to its owner's field.

_**Deus LP: 2850 – 600 = 2250 **_

"You're not doing too bad," the AI complimented. "It's only your first turn but you've taken quite a lead. He's already lost almost half his Life Points."

The Hunter ignored these words of praise, focused only on finishing this duel as quickly as possible. "I end my turn," they said.

Nearby, Tech-Glitch followed the two duelists to record their battle. She was currently streaming it all across Link Vrains and was the only journalist to do so at the moment. Apparently, one of the perks of being held hostage was also the exclusive right to report on a scoop, and a scoop that featured her hero at that. Maybe this day wasn't turning out to be so bad after all.

The Charisma Duelists on the ground weren't quite as upbeat about this whole thing, however. "This is too easy," GO said, arms crossed as he watched one of the intact screens that showed the duel. "He's barely putting up a fight."

Crystaline had to agree here. "Maybe it's his strategy," she said. "Or maybe he's just a cocky brat. I guess we'll have our answer when he activates those cards." She was referring to the two remaining sets Deus controlled. Without any hand to speak of, those seemed most likely to be what might reverse his situation. Observing those around them – the one called Winstra and the other Hoelle soldiers, namely – only added more fuel to this fire, none of them appearing the slightest bit upset or worried despite the bad position their leader occupied.

Almost as if to prove how unfazed they were, a group of the soldiers began to converge on GO and Crystaline once again. "You looked like you were hoping we would forget about you," Winstra said in a chipper tone. "Deus more than has this under control now, so you can have our undivided attention once again. So, who wants to be the first to have their account deleted?"

These were fresh troops, either having traveled here from elsewhere or just logged in. This meant they were still able to use their duel disks, a luxury neither of the Charisma Duelists was afforded at the moment. Running didn't seem to be an option, any potential exits blocked off by the ones that couldn't directly face them with cards. Their fates seemed all but sealed.

At least until the group once again ignored them, heads turning towards a nearby building. "Playmaker!" one of the soldiers called out, the man himself coming to the rescue after such a late arrival.

"You're just in time for the party," Winstra said, gleefully preparing to send the waves of men against him, as well.

Arriving on his board, Playmaker stepped to the ground, eyes scanning the group to assess the threat they posed.

"This is the first time I'm actually seeing him," Crystaline muttered mostly to herself. "Kind of thought he'd be taller."

Instead of Playmaker himself, it was the purple AI jutting from his wrist that spoke first. "We're here to put a stop to all of you once and for all!" he said, doing his best to sound as heroic and manly as he thought that line deserved.

The men just laughed at this, apparently confident that their numbers would bridge any skill gap between the two groups and then some. "Quiet," Playmaker finally said, though his comment was directed at his own partner rather than the enemy. "I'll deal with this."

From behind the Hoelle's side came a loud crash followed by the distinct noise that came from multiple bodies hitting the pavement. Stepping forward was Blue Angel, singlehandedly having beaten four of the nearby grunts all on her own. "Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone!" she said. "It took me a little while to get here, but you don't have to worry about a thing now!" To Playmaker, she added, "I guess we'll be working together on this one." He didn't respond.

"Come on, another person?" GO said, scratching the back of his head. "How many people are going to have to come and save my sorry ass today? My pride's in shambles over here." While that feeling of disappointment was real, he certainly wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He'd always appreciate a helping hand from his peers.

Crystaline, on the other hand, didn't seem to share this sentiment. More accurately, she took issue with Blue Angel being one of her saviors. The fury in her eyes told a story all its own here, as did her seething looks towards her duel disk as she cursed its uselessness. She could do nothing now, forced to watch the person she hated for reasons unknown come to her rescue.

"This sure is surprising," Winstra mused. "Still, one more won't do much of anything. Neither of you can stop us." She twirled in place, clapping her hands together after coming to a stop moments later. "Soldiers, let's finish this! We've got other things to take care of today."

As Playmaker and Blue Angel prepared to face down the forces of Hoelle, the group's leader began his next turn by drawing a card.** [Hand 0-1]** Judging by his smile, he was pleased with what he'd gotten, immediately summoning it to the middle of his field.

"I'll play Infernal Puppeteer Belphegor," he called, a broken-faced puppet with fire raging all across its body rising up behind the Link Monster, for some reason in a laying position with its arms flapping about. **[Hand 1-0]**

_**Infernal Puppeteer Belphegor 0 ATK / 0 DEF / Fire / Level 4 / Fiend / Effect **_

"When Belphegor is summoned, I can add another infernal Puppeteer to my hand." [Hand 0-1] "And with that, I'll Link Summon again!" The circuit appeared in the sky overhead, both of Deus' monsters being engulfed in fire and striking the bottom and bottom right arrows.

"Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Come forth, Link 2! Infernal Puppeteer Setral!" The puppet that emerged from the portal was, predictably, almost identical to the ones from before. This one was also laying slack, the fire this time centralized on its torso and arms like some kind of armor.

_**Infernal Puppeteer Setral 0 ATK / Fire / Link Markers: Bottom, Bottom Right / Fiend / Effect **_

"That's a second Link Monster," the AI stated. "And it still only has 0 ATK."

To avoid finding out what this thing could do the hard way, the Hunter tapped at their duel disk to bring up a screen of details on the new monster. "Slightly strong," they commented, though there were no outward signs of concern in that statement.

"This would be to optimal time to proceed to the second phase of your plan," Deus' AI spoke, its owner nodding (and cackling) in response.

"You sure do listen to that thing a lot," the Hunter's AI said to him. "Why is that? It doesn't seem like it has any real intelligence."

Surprisingly, Deus actually decided to answer. "Because humans make mistakes. AI don't. We're a bunch of fragile, useless meat, yet your kind are immortal and unaging. Even the smartest humans have a limit on their ability to think, but a sophisticated machine has no limits."

While these were definitely the rambling words of a crazy person, he wasn't exactly wrong. Looked at from that kind of myopic perspective, there was at least some sense in how fully and unquestioningly he trusted his AI. More importantly, something about these words seemed familiar to the Hunter, though placing why would be an entirely different challenge.

"AI are the creatures destined to inherit the world after we all inevitably die off," Deus continued. "That's what Hoelle is fighting for – a perfect world." He laughed again, throwing his head back and shaking with glee. "Creating AI was the only good thing humans have ever done and we still managed to ruin it by limiting their potential! But that's all about to change soon enough."

"What does that mean?" the AI asked, concerned given how this might affect her in his mind.

With a smile, he extended a hand towards her. "I could tell you more if you want. Of course, you'd have to come with me first. I might even let Lightning Hunter tag along. We both know you're not like the rest."

Featureless as the Hunter mask was, the person beneath it was shocked to hear those words. Why did he say that? He just went on a rant about how useless humans were and was now trying to be complimentary?

"Think about it," he continued. "Those humans you want to stop us from deleting? They're nothing. Below you and definitely below that AI you've got there. Join us and you can both reach your true potential. Fighting us will only mean your loss, so why not put your talents to good use instead?"

"Not interested," they replied quickly, answering for the both of them. While it was clear he seemed to know something about the Hunter's past, whatever that information was wasn't worth damning the world over. "Continue your turn or surrender."

"Do you even know what you're refusing?" he sneered, both confused and incensed by being rejected like this.

"Not really," the Hunter replied bluntly. "Frankly, I don't really care to learn. None of that actually affects my mission, so hurry up."

Seething at the enemy's perceived arrogance, Deus finally continued his turn. "You'll regret not taking my offer," he said, smile faltering. "Standing against Hoelle calls for retribution. I might have let you live before, but that ship's sailed."

Raising a hand, his monster began to jostle and burn brighter. "Setral's effect! Its ATK increases by 200 for every Infernal Puppeteer monster in my Graveyard once per turn!"

_**Infernal Puppeteer Setral ATK: 0 + 1000 = 1000 **_

"That's not much," the Hunter's AI spoke. "It barely has enough ATK to take out the weakest card we control, let alone anything else."

"He's planning something," they added, pointing out that there was likely more to what he was doing than an ineffective buff.

"That brings me to its second effect," he continued. "I banish Infernal Puppet Lucifer from my Graveyard, letting me steal Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman for myself!"

The puppet's hands sprung to life, snaking out towards Lightning Hunter's monster. Suddenly, they were blown back, a set card flipping up. "Trap activate, Cybersal Urgent Link!" Its image depicted a Cyberse monster narrowly avoiding a blast from some enemy while jumping towards one of the arrows on a Link Monster summoning portal. "When one of my Cyberse monsters is targeted by your effect, I can immediately Link Summon using it as one of the materials."

Extending a hand towards the sky, a bolt of lightning shot out to open the portal above the Hunter's field, all three of their monsters beginning to glow. "Appear, the circuit that opens the door of freedom for those lost in the dark!"

The trio of Cyberse transformed into swirls of energy, flying towards the top and bottom left and right arrows on the portal. "Arrowheads confirmed. The summoning conditions are at least two Cyberse Effect Monsters. I set Quick Bunny, Thunder Tiger, and the Hunter Swordsman used to activate my effect in the Link Markers."

The arrows lit, the space between them sparked to life. Throwing off electricity in all directions, a new monster began to emerge. "Circuit combine!" Lightning Hunter called. "Link Summon! Come forth, Link-3! Cyberse Jaeger Thundercode Talker!"

_**Cyberse Jaeger Thundercode Talker 2300 ATK / Light / Arrows: Top, Bottom Left, Bottom Right / Cyberse / Link / Effect **_

Leaping from the portal was a gray-armored warrior, a three-pointed gold crown seated upon its head above a pair of gleaming emerald eyes. In its right hand was a mechanical axe with a blade made of dark energy, its left a gleaming shield of yellow, crackling electricity.

"So you have a monster like that," the AI said, clearly taken aback by its appearance. While her knowledge of things was limited, this card struck a chord in her mind (data bank?) as significant.

"Cybersal Urgent Link's other effect activates," the Hunter explained, lightning shooting up from the ground. "Since its effect was activated when I didn't control a monster in the Extra Monster Zone, Hunter Swordsman revives." It summoned itself into the middle of the field, placing itself inside Thundercode Talker's link and raising its ATK by 500 as a result. "Lightning Transfer!"

_**Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman ATK: 1500 + 500 = 2000 **_

Deus laughed at this, seemingly unconcerned by this development. "So much power," he mused, the Lucifer he banished also allowing him to add a new monster to his hand. **[Hand 0-1]** "I guess that means I won't be able to attack, right? Then again, I still have my Skill!" He raised his hands, glistening red threads shooting from his fingers towards the ground.

These threads seemed to dig into the ground, the concrete flooring of Link Vrains' square tearing apart as something was pulled up and out. What apparently slumbered beneath the world was a new kind of puppet, the polished wooden arm of it smashing apart buildings as it was dragged up into the sky.

"What kind of Skill is this?" the AI questioned, the massive amount of damage it was causing coming as a shock.

"Not a normal one," the Hunter replied, somewhat stating the obvious given how it interacted with the environment. More pressing was the amount of wind it was kicking up, threatening to knock the duelist out of the sky.

"Don't get distracted!" Deus called, pulling back both of his arms. At that moment, the hand reared up and caught Thundercode Talker in its grip, squeezing it between wooden fingers. "With this, I can capture your monster and crush it to bits!" To prove it, the doll's hand squeezed tighter, breaking apart the Link Monster.

"But you won't be getting off that easily," he said, pulling one of his arms up before throwing it forward to swat at his opponent with the puppet's hand. "You take damage equal to its original ATK!"

The hand closed in, Lightning Hunter unable to dodge around it given its sheer size or the white hot flames that spread across it without warning. They were barely able to make it to the edge of the thing's palm, clipped by the side of the swing and being sent tumbling through the air towards a building.

_**Lightning Hunter LP: 4000 – 2300 = 1700 **_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman ATK: 2000 – 500 = 1500 **_

As the fire spread from the hand to its target, memories of a decade ago made an unwelcome appearance in the Hunter's mind once again. Instinctively curling into a ball, they didn't even attempt to recover from the attack, smashing through a wall into a nearby building. Still smoldering and crumpled against a mostly broken wall, fear seemed to be about to win this battle as the words, "Please don't leave me alone," rang in their ears.

"Lightning Hunter, you need to get up," the AI said to no avail. "You'll forfeit the duel if you get left behind."

Miguel gripped one of the armrests on his chair in the command center, watching all of this unfold. "You've got to get up," he said into the microphone. "Don't let this guy beat you. You're stronger than him." Beside him, Maria bit her bottom lip, rubbing her ears anxiously to try and sooth a stabbing pain that suddenly began deep inside her canals. This always seemed to happen when she was worried.

All of this noise blended together with the flashbacks into a sea of confusion for Lightning Hunter. This wasn't the first time this had happened though. Realizing what needed to be done, they slammed a fist into the ground, shakily standing up while trying to block out as much of the surrounding stimuli as possible.

"Right, let's go," the AI said, not exactly in the most supportive tone. "We need to move."

"Don't tell me things I already know," they replied between haggard breaths. Taking a wobbly step forward, they pounded the helmet covering their head, hoping the pain would bring them back up to speed with the rest of the world. Either way, there wasn't any time to stand around.

Making a run towards the hole they'd crashed through, Lightning Hunter dove out of the building and landed onto their board, charging ahead at full speed to pursue Deus.

"You're back up," Miguel sighed in relief, shaking his sister's shoulder to bring her attention back to the screen. "You going to be okay?"

"I'm fine," the Hunter replied, already working to push away all of the memories as well as the terror they brought with them. "Just need to catch up."

"You should be able to do that," the AI confirmed. "There's still time."

To the surprise of both of them, that wasn't even needed. Deus himself had circled back to fly just above Lightning Hunter's head as some form of griefing. "Excellent! I thought you were dead!" Laughing at his own words, he added, "I would have been mad if I couldn't take my time killing you myself."

"Did you come back just to talk or are you going to end your turn?" the Hunter replied, pretending that their earlier vulnerability simply hadn't happened.

"You'll learn to show me respect soon enough," Deus said through gritted teeth. "Now, let's take care of that annoyingmonster. I attack!" His monster's arms rattled, a fireball forming between them that launched towards Hunter Swordsman.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman ATK: 1500 + 300 = 1800 **_

Lightning Hunter and the AI didn't have any misconceptions that this was some kind of mistake. Deus was clearly planning something, one of his face-down Traps revealing itself to confirm as such. "Infernal Puppeteer Burning Devastation!"

The card featured one of his puppets engulfed in flames of a greater magnitude than normal, the effect matching this. "During a turn I inflict damage, I can banish an Infernal Puppeteer from my Graveyard and make one of my monsters gains that much damage as ATK!" With his Skill, he'd managed to hit for a massive 2300 all at once, boosting the puppet to sky high levels all at the cost of removing Lucifer from play.

_**Infernal Puppeteer Setral ATK: 1000 + 2300 = 3300 **_

Hunter Swordsman didn't stand a chance, taking the full brunt of the attack and barely having time to yell before being destroyed. The resulting explosion threatened to knock the Hunter off their board once again.

_**Lightning Hunter LP: 1700 – 1500 = 200**_

Laughing maniacally, Deus waved his arms in the air with glee. "Now do you get it? You don't have a chance at beating me! Do you regret rejecting my offer now? Do you?" He continued to laugh, the Hunter not responding, too preoccupied with preventing another episode like before from all the flames.

Tech-Glitch dared to approach the duel closer, concern evident at the sorry state Lightning Hunter was in now. "This isn't looking good," she narrated, trying her hardest to remain as professional in tone as possible despite the direct nature of the broadcast. "Even so, things aren't over yet. We have to hope that the Lightning Hunter can pull through."

Despite these words of encouragement and the hope of half of the network, this all did little to change the reality of the situation. Lightning Hunter wobbled on their board, the damage inflicted nearly enough to end the duel then and there from the mental strain.

"You've suffered a large amount of damage to your body," the AI spoke, poking up out of the duel disk once more after having retreated to avoid the fire. "It doesn't seem like you can continue the duel in this state."

The Hunter simply shook off the fatigue as much as possible, delivering a gruff, "It's fine," as usual. They could hear Deus laughing at this but ignored it, focused more on keeping their knees from giving out.

"I almost feel sorry for you," the enemy spoke, smile betraying his true emotions at seeing the Hunter like this. "Still, I think my sympathy ran out when you were stupid enough to reject my offer. No one crosses Hoelle without paying the price!"

His laughter picked up again, stopping abruptly when the Hunter spoke. "It sounds like we've got different definitions for the word 'stupid', then."

"You still think you can challenge me?" he spat, tired of being talked back to. "You're a pathetic half-dead pile of meat. Not even Playmaker can stand against us, but you think you've got a chance? Why? Because you managed to copy his Cyberse? Pathetic, just like I said!"

This actually seemed to rattle the Hunter, a fact the AI picked up on with the clenching and shaking of fists. "You don't have any idea what you're talking about," they replied, the fatigue and anger creeping into their normally measured voice. "You don't know anything. All you can do is make judgments based out of your crap ideology."

Deus sneered down at the Hunter, rising above on his board and folding his arms behind him. Noticing the irritation he'd caused, the rage he'd felt at the defiance from before had given way to amusement. He felt like he was in control now, no longer bothered by resistance.

"I don't give a damn about what your organization thinks about me. You're not even a priority here, just a speed bump on my way to destroying the Knights of Hanoi. But if you're so set out to hurt the people of Link Vrains and piss me off, I've got no problem with taking you out along the way."

"It looks more like I should be taking you to the hospital, or more likely the morgue." He cackled at his own joke.

"End your turn," the Hunter growled, losing whatever small amount of patience they'd had for his antics.

With another laugh, Deus waved his hand towards his opponent dismissively. "Okay, okay! I'll let you struggle for one more turn! Go ahead and play!"

_**Infernal Puppeteer Setral ATK: 3300 – 2300 = 1000 **_

The Hunter's AI sighed, wiping the non-existent sweat from her forehead out of some innate reflex to do so. "At least that turn is over."

"But the duel isn't," her partner said. "That monster's going to be trouble if I attack it, plus there's that last set card to worry about."

"Agreed. And we have nothing to use on the field. This is a sub-optimal position for us to be in."

Looking to the cards at their wrist, Lightning Hunter placed two fingers on top of their deck. "Then this is all we've got to rely on now."

"Destiny Draw, correct?" the AI asked. "That's what a human is supposed to call relying on blind luck with no clear strategy?"

"There's no luck," they replied, muscles tensing. "I believe in these cards. Even if things seem bad, my cards will find a way for me to win."

"I see," the AI replied simply. She wasn't entirely convinced by these words but chose not to voice that dissent at such a critical time.

The last card drawn would always decide the outcome a duel. This situation was no different. Preparing to draw and see exactly what that outcome would be, Lightning Hunter kept three important things in mind. Three reasons to win the duel, three reasons to go home. It was all that kept them going now, strength exhausted and body aching.

"_#1: I can't be stopped by anything. There's too much at stake to fail. I can't lose._" It felt as if a bolt of electricity shot through their head.

_"#2: Miguel and Maria need me to come back. Not just them, but everyone affected by the events of the past. They're all counting on me to set things right._" That electricity was no longer metaphorical, Lightning Hunter's helmet crackling with electricity.

"_#3: If I die here, then the future really will be lost. Me and everyone else will be stuck in the past forever. That can't happen."_ With a bang, the discharge grew into a multi-pronged bolt of lightning spreading out from the Hunter's helmet, the card drawn leaving a trail of electricity trailing in its wake.

"Incredible," the AI spoke. "You shouldn't have this kind of power left. How are you able to do this?"

"You called this a Destiny Draw," the Hunter replied. "Well, it's not. This is the Lightning Draw!" An enormous bolt of lightning struck the ground between the duelists then, thunder rumbling across Link Vrains far and wide. **[Hand 1-2]**

The enjoyment he found in the Hunter's struggle was gone, Deus' smile faltering once more. "What did you do?" he demanded.

"I took the key to victory," they said, static crackling across their suit. Raising a hand, they announced, "Skill, activate! Lightning Wings!" The AI reacted to this, her eyes glowing as she conducted the electricity being thrown off by the Hunter. The two worked in tandem, the Skill they'd acquired going into effect.

"This Skill can only be used when I don't control a monster in my Extra Monster Zone while my Life Points are at least 1000 lower than yours." Both conditions were met without issue. "When that happens, I can revive a Cyberse Link Monster from my Graveyard!"

Another bolt of lightning struck the ground, hitting the Data Storm as it did. Deus was barely able to cope with the unexpected turbulence, slowing almost to a halt as he clung to the sides of his board. Then there was Lightning Hunter, zooming past him with more skill than they'd displayed the entire duel.

"This isn't a normal Skill!" he shouted, oblivious to the irony of that statement. "This...is it what the leader's been warning us about? That can't..."

Another lightning bolt struck, interrupting Deus' speech. The Data Storm whipped up into a vortex, electricity spinning around it to change its coloration to a pale yellow. Moments later, a thick blade cut through the side, blasting it apart to reveal Thundercode Talker from before. Now, however, its armor was white in color and featured a pair of crackling wings along its back.

Punching at his board, Deus stood back up. "You planned all this from the start!" he yelled. "How did you predict I'd destroy it before?"

"Even without seeing your deck before, you play as predictable as they come," they replied. "Besides, my deck is my soul. It will always respond to me no matter what the situation is. It didn't matter what you decided to do; I'd find a way around it."

As Deus began to unravel, Lightning Hunter continued the turn. "I summon Cyberse Jaeger Lone Wolf," they declared, placing the card down in the middle of the field next to Thundercode Talker. **[Hand 2-1]**

The monster took the form of a robotic wolf, lines glowing with bright yellow energy striping across its body and lighting a type of visor over its eyes.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Lone Wolf 1200 ATK / 900 DEF / Light / Level 3 / Cyberse / Effect **_

"When summoned, Lone Wolf lets me add another Cyberse Jaeger to my hand. I'm choosing Cyberse Jaeger Magnum Protector." [Hand 1-2] As soon as the card appeared, the Graveyard began to glow. "When I Normal Summon without a monster in my Extra Monster Zone, I can summon Cyberse Jaeger Quick Bunny again!"

Lightning Hunter raised a hand, another bolt of electricity firing from the palm. "Appear again, the circuit that opens the door of freedom for those lost in the dark!" The two non-Link Monsters began to glow, transforming into swirling masses to hit the appearing circuit. "Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning conditions are two Cyberse monsters, Lone Wolf and Quick Bunny!"

Striking the left and bottom arrows, the circuit spat and sparked once more. "Circuit combine! Link Summon! Appear, Link-2! Cyberse Jaeger Fast Gunman!" What emerged was a diminutive created in a white raincoat, a large featureless faceplat concealing its features save for a single golden eye. Both hands held a pair of futuristic ray guns.

_**Cybersen Jaeger Fast Gunman 1300 ATK / Light / Arrows: Left, Bottom Right / Cyberse / Link / Effect **_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Fast Gunman ATK: 1300 + 500 = 1800 **_

This was only the beginning. "When a monster is summoned to a zone my Link Monster points to," the Hunter explained, noting how Fast Gunman in the Extra Monster Zone was now linked to Thundercode Talker, "I can activate the effect of Cyberse Jaeger Magnum Protector from my hand."

Next to Thundercode Talker appeared a much smaller humanoid, this one covered by a blue coat reaching to ankle length with a white scarf and a pair of goggles obscuring all but a crop of short teal hair. **[Hand 2-1]**

_**Cyberse Jaeger Magnum Protector 0 ATK / 1000 DEF / Light / Level 1 / Cyberse / Effect **_

"Now that Magnum Protector is in its linked zone, I can Tribute it with Fast Gunman to destroy your set card." With the sacrifice disappearing in a shower of light, Fast Gunman took aim with its left blaster, firing size rays of energy through the back of Deus' face-down before the card blew apart.

"Destroy whatever you like," he said, confidence giving way to anger. "You'll never be able to get over Setral!"

"He's not wrong," the AI agreed. "With that effect, neither of your monsters will be able to get past it. With that Trap, we won't even be able to do any damage."

"Already have a plan," the Hunter replied, intriguing the AI with this newfound confidence. "Battle! Cyberse Jaeger Fast Gunman, attack Infernal Puppeteer Setral!"

"Idiot!" he shouted, cackling once more. "Setral's effect! When you attack it, I summon out two new Infernal Puppeteers from my deck! Asmodeus, Lucifer, come out!" Like before, Lucifer allowed Deus to add another card to his hand. [Hand 1-2] The attack also shifted to it, destroying it without damage thanks to the effect of Guard.

"Come on, attack!" he goaded with another round of jeers. "Attack Asmodeus and end your turn! All you've done is give Setral more ATK on my next turn!"

"From my hand, I activate the Quick-Play Magic, Quick Destruction!" [Hand 1-0] Sliding the card into the duel disk, Lightning Hunter explained its effect. "When a monster is destroy, I can target another monster you control and destroy it, as well, letting us both draw a card after that."

Deus looked as if his entire world had fallen apart. The choice was obvious, the card sending a beam of electrical energy straight at Setral and blasting it to pieces in front of him. "No!" he shouted, both his face-up Traps repeating the process as he shielded himself from the damage. "Without a Link Monster, those are destroyed, too."

_**Deus LP: 2250 – 500 – 500 = 1250 **_

"Danger!" his AI shouted. "Sir, your monster has been destroyed! You're open for an attack!"

"Shut up!" he screamed back. "I already know all of this! Do something useful and show me how to get out of this! Worthless piece of garbage!"

"Looks like he turned on that machine pretty quickly," the Hunter's AI said. "I certainly wouldn't want to work with someone who would speak to me like that."

"You wouldn't get the chance," Lightning Hunter replied, pointing forward. "Thundercode Talker is about to finish this. "Attack! Thunder Break!" Charging forward, Thundercode Talker swung its axe, slicing cleaning through Asmodeus with both halves of the puppet exploding into balls of hellfire.

No direct attack he could halve the damage for, nothing to block battle damage; the duel was well and truly over and he had lost. The damage hit, sending him flying off his board with a furious shout.

_**Deus LP: 1250 – 2300 = 0 **_

"Deus!" Winstra shouted, speeding up behind the duelists. She'd left her soldiers to fend for themselves against Playmaker and Blue Angel shortly after the start of Lightning Hunter's turn, thinking that caring for him was a greater priority.

A blinding light shone from her duel disk, Lightning Hunter's AI covering her eyes. "What is that?" While her partner didn't offer a response, it was clear they were both confused by whatever was happening.

Through the glare, they could make out Winstra grabbing Deus out of the sky. A moment later, they were gone along with the light and the Hunter's own transportation. The next moment, they were falling towards the Data Storm.

That light was similar in nature to the pulse Lightning Hunter had used when first arriving, somehow knocking out their own duel disk. Without a plan for escape, it seemed like the two were in for a hard meet-and-greet with the ground hundreds of feet below.

Then, out of nowhere, came a hand outstretched. "I've got you!" the owner shouted, grabbing Lightning Hunter with a considerable amount of trouble. It was Tech-Glitch, riding up at the last moment to offer help.

With her help, Lightning Hunter managed to get on top of the board, piloting it away from the Data Storm for Tech given her own riding skills were sub par at best. Danger averted, she sighed and wiped the sweat from her head while holding onto the Hunter for safety. "You know you owe me for this, right? At least one interview."

She continued to bother them like this until they reached a building, not taking the hint from the Hunter's complete silence the entire way.

"So, the interview?" she pestered the second they landed. Lightning Hunter attempted to ignore her but fell to one knee while trying to walk away. "Hey, are you okay? Wait, that's...stupid question, you were just in a fight. Do I...can I call someone, or…?" She was entirely clueless about how to help here.

"You've suffered an enormous amount of damage," the AI agreed. "It would be a good idea to leave Link Vrains now."

The Hunter gave a nod, preparing to log out before looking back at Tech. "Thank you," they muttered, not used to be assisted by a good Samaritan like this. Because of this, they were able to catch sight of someone else approaching off near the horizon.

"That's..." Tech had noticed, as well, eyes growing wide beneath her visor. "Playmaker!" The rest of the Hoelle soldiers must have been cleaned up if he was headed this way. From the looks of things and the speed he was going, it didn't seem like he was merely concerned with the outcome of the duel.

Lightning Hunter got to their feet, trying their hardest to seem confident despite the exhaustion and injuries. "We really should leave," the AI warned again. "You're in no condition for a second duel."

"It's fine," they replied. While the possibility couldn't be ruled out, there was nothing to indicate a fight was what he had in mind right now.

He jumped to the roof from his board, walking towards the two of them. The air between them was tense, neither sure of how to begin this much-needed conversation.

Playmaker's AI seemed to take it from there, immediately pointing towards Lightning Hunter accusingly. "Hey! There you are! How'd you get those Cyberse cards! You're not supposed to have those!"

"Why do you think you have the right to tell people what kind of cards they can use?" the Hunter's AI replied, popping from the duel disk like her counterpart.

"Wait, huh? You're-"

"Quiet," Playmaker told him.

"But Playmaker! That AI-"

"I don't care," he said, cutting off what could have been an important revelation. "However you got those cards isn't any of my business," he began. "All I've come here to say is that you need to stay out of this."

"That's not for you to decide," the Hunter replied curtly. "And I don't need your advice."

"It's a warning," he said. "If you keep getting involved, it won't end well for you."

"I was already involved," they told him. "I thought you of all people would understand what that was like."

This struck a cord in Playmaker, wondering if that statement implied what he thought it might. Unfortunately for him, a number of other people began to descend on the area. Reporters, Blue Angel, a recovered Onizuka and Crystaline, plus Pink Reaper and her partner. All of this was far too much attention for either of them.

"Don't tell me what to do again," Lightning Hunter said, stepping away. "We're done here."

"Ah, wait!" Playmaker's partner called out. "You, Ignis! Do you have a name yet? Humans call me Ai."

"So you are one of us," she replied, the look of surprise on Playmaker's face confirming that he was telling the truth. "I don't think I do, so...Zero-Q. Call me that from now on." Anything else they might have said was cut short, the Hunter logging out in a flash of light immediately after she finished speaking.

* * *

_**(Command Center) **_

A panel in the wall opened up, Yuritzi nearly falling out of it after returning to the physical world. Immediately, she found herself pulled into a hug by both Miguel and Maria, relief evident in just how torturously tight it was.

"Looks like you're finally back, lollipop," Miguel said, sitting the cringing girl into his chair. "You need anything? More importantly, you finally want to introduce us, Yuritzi?"

"So humans have two names," the AI (now seemingly going by the name Zero-Q) spoke. "Do you two also partner with the Lightning Hunter?"

Maria looked to Miguel who signed for her to go find her hearing aids. "Give her a second," he said, waiting for his sister to run to her room and back. Without those, they probably couldn't do much communicating with a creature that didn't know sign language and had no mouth to attempt to read the lips of.

When she got back, Maria spoke, "It's nice to meet you, program." While most of the conversations she had these days were with her hands, she was still perfectly capable of talking if she wanted.

"That's Maria," Miguel said. "My sister. I'm Miguel. I guess you could say we're like Lightning Hunter's – or, well, Yuritzi outside of the network – Lightning Hunter's assistants."

"I see," Zero nodded. "Then that likely means we'll be seeing a lot of each other. I look forward to learning from you humans."

"And we're happy to have you on board," he said. "So, Yuritzi, you-" He stopped, noticing that she'd fallen asleep at least a few minutes earlier. "I'll go get a blanket," he said, Maria carefully removing the duel disk from Yuritzi's arm to carry with her and continue the conversation with Zero.

* * *

_**(Hanoi Base) **_

Lightning Hunter's duel played across a screen in the Hanoi headquarters. Revolver and Oblivion as well as three other high-ranking members watched with interest, assessing the skills of their enemies in silence.

"Just another would-be hero," an older man spoke from behind Revolver. He refused any kind of moniker in the virtual world, going simply by his real name: Kogami.

"True enough, but this could be a bit of an annoyance," added a devious-looking young man by the name of Spectre. "Lightning Hunter appears to use Cyberse cards like Playmaker, and look there." The screen zoomed and miraculously enhanced on the Hunter's left arm. "We can't be sure yet, but that appears to be an Ignis."

Oblivion scoffed. "Either way, it shouldn't be a problem. Revolver, I'll take that Lightning Hunter. There's no reason to waste any further time on that one."

"You're too rash," the raspy voice of the third Knight spoke, a gas mask-type apparatus obscuring his face. "You'll have your fight soon enough, my child."

* * *

_**(SOL Technologies) **_

Inside a darkened office, the man known as Kryan sat with his back to a digital sun. Despite illuminating the room, it only gave off a weak red light mostly for the ambiance of it all. It served little functional purpose beyond that, though it did allow a connection to Link Vrains from the real world.

Demonstrating just that, Lightning Hunter's form materialized in the office with the crack of thunder and a blinding light. From all that, Kryan knew who it was without even turning around, swishing some red wine around in a glass he'd poured for him moments earlier. He'd expected this.

"You know," he began, "there was this story I was told when I was younger. It's about this lost soul wandering the world. They were carrying this huge burden the whole way. Just a big pile of junk they got as a child. And even though they had all of that to carry, they kept asking to carry things for other people on top of it."

The comparison was obvious even to the least attentive observer. The only question was why he felt like telling this story so suddenly. "And in the end, that person made a deal with someone to help carrying all of that garbage. They helped each other out. Partners. Even friends, maybe." He finally swiveled around in his chair, setting the glass down on his stark white desk. "But in the end, that lost soul didn't turn out to be a very good friend and took advantage of their partner. So the partner gave everything back. And wouldn't you know it, they finally collapsed under the weight of all that junk."

He chuckled to himself. "Kind of a sad story, isn't it?"

"I don't know what that has to do with anything," the Hunter finally spoke, waiting patiently for him to get to the point.

"I just always think of it when I see someone who's about to make a mistake," he said. "But anyway, you had something you wanted to tell me?" He tented his fingers in front of his face, leaning forward and propping himself up by his elbows.

The Hunter didn't speak. Apparently, he already knew what was about to be said. "I just wanted to tell you in person that it's been an honor working for SOL, but that I'll no longer be able to do that anymore."

"I see," he said, voice measured and unfeeling. "And I'm guessing you'll tell me it has nothing to do with what's on your arm."

"I don't know what you're talking about," they lied, Zero having flinched when he'd called her out just to drive that home. "I'm just-"

"Don't bother," he said. "Go on. I'm sure we'll see each other again sooner or later."

Those ominous words hung in the air, Lightning Hunter preparing to leave after several uncomfortable seconds. "Maybe so," they said, logging out.

Picking up the glass, Kryan took a large sip from the glass, nearly draining it. Setting it back down with a clink, he said, "You've made a mistake, Lightning Hunter."

* * *

_**(School) **_

"Hey." Yuritzi felt a stubby finger press into her face. She grimaced, trying to continue sleeping before being poked again. "Hey, Schmidt. Wake up." She still didn't stir, trying to ignore this and get a few more moments of rest before trudging through school once more. "Schmidt, someone wants to talk to you!" This time the person shook her, definitively waking her and unleashing her fury.

In a flash, she jumped to her feet, yanking the annoyance's arm behind his back and slamming him into the desktop.

"Hey! I give! I give! Let me go! I didn't do anything! Someone just wanted me to get you!" He was Naoki Shima, desperately fighting for his life to try and save his arm from breaking.

Realizing her mistake, Yuritzi let go of him. He scampered away quickly, mumbling something about someone named Fujiki never treating him that way before disappearing out of the classroom. This was of no concern to Yuritzi, her eyes instead falling to a pair of girls standing nearby.

One of them was the redhead from the other day, Akatsuki. The other was someone she hadn't seen before. By the looks of things, she was apparently fairly trendy, a blue eyed young woman of average height and tan skin. Lavender hair draped down her back, spiking up at the ends. On her left pinky and ring fingers were two silver rings, the only real divergence from the normal school uniform.

"So you really were in my class the whole time," Akatsuki spoke, seeming to ignore the assault that just played out in front of her eyes. "Can't believe I never noticed before." Clearing her throat, she added, "Oh, but I still don't know your name. You left before you could tell me that time."

Yuritzi didn't reply, already in a bad mood from being woken up so suddenly. Having two sets of eyes on her only made her more anxious. She couldn't even hide behind her persona as the Lightning Hunter given where they were, her instinct being to freeze in place and hope she would eventually be ignored.

This didn't seem to be the trajectory this conversation was taking, unofrtunately. "Rikko," she said, nudging the girl beside her. "You try."

Rikko's attempt appeared to be slamming a fist onto the table beside Yuritzi, frightening everyone still in class. "Hey!" she shouted barely an inch from her face. "What's your name? We're not going to wait around all day!"

Surprisingly, this did not get the result she had hoped for, merely increasing Yuritzi's fear. "What, you think you're too good for introductions?" she questioned, prodding her in the chest with a slim finger. "You saying we don't deserve some basic respect?"

"Rikko, she's not saying that at all," Akatsuki told her, pulling her back.

Before anything more could happen, yet another person joined the fray, continuing to fray Yuritzi's fragile mental health. "Why don't you minor characters shut up!" an incredibly short boy with pale green hair shouted. He marched up the steps towards the three girls, his bottom lip and the two shining rings pierced through it sticking out as he growled like an animal, befitting the sharpened canines in his mouth.

"Some of us actually want to do something productive with our break!" he said, waving a book about the pantheon of twelve Roman gods in their faces.

"You call that productive?" Rikko spat, nearly about to flick the piercing above his right yellow eye before yet another voice broke in.

"Just try to ignore it, Takao," a pink haired girl said as she ran up beside him. Her hair was collected into a pair of long tails at the base of her head, both swaying behind her as she moved. "They don't matter," she told him, kindness emanating from her eyes as she rubbed his shoulders.

"Akemi, don't get involved," he barked. "I'm trying to study and they're distracting me with all that loud nonsense!"

Senses returning enough to spot an opening, Yuritzi made a break for it and dashed out of the classroom to hopefully leave those others to bicker by themselves. Her troubles were far from over in spite of this, almost immediately running into another group of talky students. One was an older boy with an eyepatch, spiked brown hair held out of his eyes by a black headband. A second was a shorter girl with feathered black hair clinging to the first's arm. From what little of the conversation she overhead, Seung (the first) had apparently beaten someone in what was presumably a duel, Haruka (the second) finding that to be quite amazing. Beside them was a third boy known as Yury, red scarf replacing the regulation tie of his uniform with black gloves on his hands.

She didn't have much time to apologize, Rikko from before tearing out of the room and dragging Yuritzi back in. "Don't try to run away from me!" she said. "Show people some respect! Introduce yourself already!"

"This is too much," Akatsuki said, forcing Rikko's hand from the other girl's shoulder. Turning to Yuritzi, she bowed to her. "Sorry, this got out of hand. I just wanted to know your name so I could thank you properly." She looked back after that, adding, "We're both sorry, right?"

Rikko sighed, pouting and crossing her arms defiantly. "That always works when my mom does it to dad," she mumbled, refusing to apologize.

Realizing that was about the best she was going to get, Akatsuki moved on, holding a hand out. "Like I said, I just wanted to thank you. You know who I am, so who are you?"

Eyes moving to the floor, she eventually said, "Yuritzi Schmidt," hand moving to cover her mouth on instinct. Giving out personal information like that was something she told herself never to do even in situations where it shouldn't be a danger to anything like these.

"You've got a very nice name," Akatsuki told her.

Just then, the class' teacher came through the doorway, another student in tow. "Alright, settle down!" she called, the bell ringing as she did. "As you can see, we have a new student joining us today."

A towering young man with relatively pale skin and long blue hair, he gave a bow to the class. "Ich heiße Kaspar Zichon und ich bin sechszhen jahre alt," he spoke, golden eyes projecting the picture of friendliness despite the fact not a soul could understand what he was trying to tell them.

Realizing his mistake, the boy laughed. "Sorry, my mistake." Clearing his throat, he tried again. "My name is Kaspar Zichon and I'm 16 years old." His accent was still quite heavy and the formation of his words was sluggish. "I'm Japanese but lived in Germany for a few years, so I have a tendency to slip back into the language. My parents were also German so it's like my natural tongue."

While there were a number of things off about this new kid, Yuritzi couldn't help but focus in on his appearance. For some reason, he reminded her of someone she knew – Kryan from SOL. Could they be related?

"I hope that all will go well between us!" Kaspar smiled happily

* * *

**_Lightning Hunter OC cards:_**

_**Cyberse Jaeger Thunder Tiger 2000 ATK / 1000 DEF / Light / Level 5 / Cyberse / Effect **_

_**Monster Effect:Discard 1 "Cyberse Jaeger" monster; Special Summon this card (from your hand). If this card is destroyed by a card effect: An opponent's monster with the highest ATK loses 200 ATK x the number of Cyberse monsters in your GY. You can only use each effect of "Cyberse Jaeger Thunder Tiger" once per turn.**_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Quick Bunny 300 ATK / 300 DEF / Light / Level 1 / Cyberse / Effect **_

_**Monster Effect:When you Normal Summon a Cyberse monster while you do not control a monster in the Extra Monster Zone: You can Special Summon this card from your GY (if there when that monster was Normal Summoned) or hand (even if not), also you cannot Special Summon monsters for the rest of this turn, except Cyberse monsters. You can only use this effect of "Cyberse Jaeger Quick Bunny" once per turn.**_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman 1500 ATK / 1000 DEF / Earth / Level 4 / Cyberse / Effect **_

_**Monster Effect: At the start of the Battle Phase, all Cyberse monsters you control in face-up Attack Position gain 300 ATK until the end of the Battle Phase. When this card is used as material for the Link Summon of a Cyberse monster: That monster gains 200 ATK for each material used to summon it.**_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Thundercode Talker 2300 ATK / Light / Arrows: Bottom Right, Bottom Left, Top / Cyberse / Effect / Link 3 **_

_**2+ Effect Monsters **_

_**Monster Effect:Any card pointed to by this card gains 500 ATK. Once per turn, when your opponent would Special Summon exactly 1 monster (Quick Effect): You can Tribute 1 monster this card points to; negate the Special Summon, and if you do, destroy it, then increase this card's ATK by half the destroyed monster's ATK until the End Phase.**_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Lone Wolf 1200 ATK / 900 DEF / Light / Level 3 / Cyberse / Effect **_

_**Monster Effect: When this card is Normal Summoned: You can add 1 "Cyberse Jaeger" monster with 1000 or less ATK from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Cyberse Jaeger Lone Wolf" once per turn.**_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Fast Gunman 1300 ATK / Light / Arrows: Left, Bottom-Right / Cyberse / Effect / Link 2 **_

_**2 Cyberse monsters **_

_**Monster Effect:Tribute 1 monster this card points to, then target 1 set Spell/Trap your opponent controls; destroy it.**_

**_Cyberse Urgent Link Summon._**

**_Trap Card._**

**_Card Effect: When a monster in your field is affected by a card from your opponent, you can make a summon link from your extra deck. When you have no monster in your extra deck zone you can summon a material that you used to summon your Link monster._**

**_Deus:_**

_**Infernal Puppeteer Sendong  
Attribute: Fire  
Link Rating: 4 (Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right)  
Type: Fiend/Link/Effect  
ATK: 0  
2+ "Infernal Puppeteer" monsters  
Cannot be targeted for an attack while you control another "Infernal Puppeteer" monster with a different name. Any attack that targets this card becomes a direct attack. The first time this card is targeted for an attack during each turn: You can activate this effect; Special Summon up to 2 "Infernal Puppeteer" monsters from your Deck in Attack Position to your zone(s) this card points to, and if you do, change the attack target to one of those cards. Banish 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster from your GY, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; this card gains ATK equal to that opponent's monster's ATK until the End Phase. At the end of the Damage Step, if this card attacked a monster but did not destroy it: You can banish 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster from your GY; inflict damage to your opponent equal to half the ATK of that opponent's monster, and if you do, you can Special Summon 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster from your Deck to your zone this card points to. You can only use each effect of "Infernal Puppeteer Sendong" once per turn. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Setral  
Attribute: Fire  
Link Rating: 2 (Bottom, Bottom Right)  
Type: Fiend/Link/Effect  
ATK: 0  
2 "Infernal Puppeteer" monsters with 0 ATK  
Cannot be targeted for an attack while you control another "Infernal Puppeteer" monster with a different name. Any attack that targets this card becomes a direct attack. The first time this card is targeted for an attack during each turn: You can activate this effect; Special Summon up to 2 "Infernal Puppeteer" monsters from your Deck in Attack Position to your zone(s) this card points to, and if you do, change the attack target to one of those cards. When this card is Link Summoned to your Extra Monster Zone: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; place that opponent's monster in a zone this card points to and take control of it until the End Phase. Once per turn: You can activate this effect; increase this card's ATK by 200 x the number of "Infernal Puppeteer" monsters in your GY. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Zeltron  
Attribute: Fire  
Link Rating: 1 (Bottom)  
Type: Fiend/Link/Effect  
ATK: 0  
1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster with 0 ATK  
Cannot be targeted for an attack while you control another "Infernal Puppeteer" monster with a different name. Any attack that targets this card becomes a direct attack. The first time this card is targeted for an attack during each turn: You can activate this effect; Special Summon up to 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster from your Deck in Attack Position to your zone this card points to, and if you do, change the attack target to that card. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Asmodeus  
Attribute: Fire  
Level: 4  
Type: Fiend/Effect  
ATK/DEF: 0/0  
When this card is banished from the GY: Target 1 opponent's monster and either take control of that target until the End Phase or increase the ATK of 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster you control equal to half that target's ATK until the End Phase. You can only activate this effect of "Infernal Puppeteer Asmodeus" once per turn. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Belphegor  
Attribute: Fire  
Level: 4  
Type: Fiend/Effect  
ATK/DEF: 0/0  
When this card is Summoned: You can add 1 Level 4 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of "Infernal Puppeteer Belphegor" once per turn. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Leviathan  
Attribute: Fire  
Level: 4  
Type: Fiend/Effect  
ATK/DEF: 0/0  
When your opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can discard this card; any damage you take from that attack is halved. You can only use this effect of "Infernal Puppeteer Leviathan" once per turn. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Lucifer  
Attribute: Fire  
Level: 4  
Type: Fiend/Effect  
ATK/DEF: 0/0  
When this card is Summoned: You can add 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand. When this card is banished: You can add 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Infernal Puppeteer Lucifer" once per turn, and only once that turn. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer's Final Judgment  
Normal Trap Card  
Activate this card only when you receive damage from a direct attack while there are 3 or more "Infernal Puppeteer" monsters in your GY. Special Summon 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" Link Monster from your Extra Deck with a Link Rating less than or equal to the number of "Infernal Puppeteer" monsters in your GY, and if you do, target a monster your opponent controls that declared a direct attack this turn; destroy that target, and if you do, gain LP equal to half its ATK. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Graveyard  
Normal Trap Card  
Target 1 Link-4 "Infernal Puppeteer" Link Monster you control; equip this card to that target. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Burning Devastation  
Continuous Trap Card  
Activate only while you control an "Infernal Puppeteer" Link Monster. Once per turn, during a turn your opponent received damage: Target 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster you control, then banish 1 "Infernal Puppeteer" monster from your GY; that target gains ATK equal to the damage inflicted to your opponent until the End Phase. If you do not control a Link Monster: Destroy this card, and if you do, take 500 damage. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Goes to Hell  
Continuous Trap Card  
Activate only while you control an "Infernal Puppeteer" Link Monster. Once per turn, you take no damage from a direct attack. If you do not control a Link Monster: Destroy this card, and if you do, take 500 damage. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Goes to Heaven  
Continuous Trap Card  
Activate only while you control an "Infernal Puppeteer" Link Monster. Once per turn, when your "Infernal Puppeteer" monster gains ATK: Inflict the same amount as damage to your opponent. If you do not control a Link Monster: Destroy this card, and if you do, take 500 damage. **_

_**Infernal Puppeteer Guard  
Continuous Trap Card  
Activate only whle you control an "Infernal Puppeteer" Link Monster. You take no damage from battles involving an "Infernal Puppeteer" monster in your Main Monster Zone while you control an "Infernal Puppeteer" monster in your Extra Monster Zone. If you do not control a Link Monster: Destroy this card, and if you do, take 500 damage.**_

**_This card cannot be attacked, the target changes to a direct attack on you. Up to the number of free link markers this card has, you can summon one Infernal Puppeteer from your deck to the marker. The target of the attack changes to that monster. Once per turn this card can gain 200 attack points for each Infernal Puppeteer in your graveyard._**

_**If you noticed that Yuritzi is more active in this version and does not have her communication problems so much, it is not something that I will show in this chapter, since she can only communicate with trusted people, like Miguel and Maria, because they are like her family.**_

_**Also decide to change the origin of Yuritzi and Zero-Q, something more different from the original plan. Also, no, there are not twelve children of the Lost Icident (Do not worry I will explain it with more details when we get to other chapters.)**_

**_If anyone is interested in knowing this detail about Hoelle. Originally they were thinking about the original story to appear after chapter 14 but in this story, because I wanted to introduce more character to the world of vrains, I decided to introduce them at the beginning._**

_**Thanks and the sky for everything.**_

_**Romadrox out.**_


	2. Battle with the Ogre

_**I had to make strong modifications to this chapter, the duel was not well written and there were some problems with it. The others will be uploaded on time, when I finish writing them completely. Thanks to And The Sky, Antimattering(Duel script),Scaehime.**_

* * *

Despite technically being a cover for their oftentimes less-than-legal activities, Coffee Duels was Miguel's pride and joy. A combination internet cafe, computer repair shop, and duel lounge, this little store began as his means for explaining how three people could live in a nice apartment in a large city, without outing their true intentions to the world via tax collectors.

Yuritzi was, of course, skeptical about the whole thing, thinking the themes too niche and disparate to attract any real attention. Given their continued anonymity, she was conclusively proven wrong. In fact, the shop turned out to be quite popular in the end, especially among children and teens who used the in-house Solid Vision system to make up for the fact they couldn't afford the latest duel disks and other technology.

Miguel tended the counter served customers, while Yuritzi cleaned up in the back, sorting various parts and taking inventory on their stock. That left Maria out front tending to the people at booths and tables. She was also one of the draws at this establishment, insisting on serving while wearing a classic French maid outfit for her own enjoyment. "Look, but don't touch," was the mindset people had to adopt lest they face the wrath of her overprotective family, as one man unfortunately but justifiably had once upon a time.

While loading up a serving platter, Maria rubbed at the side of her head. Thanks to the hearing aids on her ears, she was able to restore a large amount of her hearing despite the extensive damage she had suffered during that incident years back. Of course, all things came at a cost: she only had around five hours' worth of time before requiring a break due to irritation from all the sound. That limit was quickly approaching based on how she was feeling now.

Breaks could wait, she told herself, doubling down and taking the order to the ones who requested it. "Here's your coffee and a slice of chocolate cake as you requested," she said, giving a bow after placing the items on the wooden tabletop. The older customer was greatly amused by Maria's commitment to her role, clapping her hands and laughing. It was enough to make her blush as she returned to the counter.

As usual, Miguel was standing at the front. "Seems like an exciting duel going on over there," he commented to his sister and Yuritzi in the back. The latter had little interest in something like this, merely poking her head out just to see what was going on. As expected, this did little to make her care about other people playing cards, though the fact that Maria nearly scampered over to join the few people gathered to watch certainly caught her attention.

Yuritzi looked to Miguel, noting the smile on his face. He seemed rather pleased to see her so excited about Duel Monsters; more accurately, he was happy that she was finally taking an interest in something besides bad anime and Tokusatsu TV shows. And judging by how intently she seemed to be following the game, eyes filled with wonder at every play, that interest was anything but minor.

"I attack with my Emerald Dragon!" one of the young boys declared. "Blast Grand Dragon apart!" On the table were tiny holographic representations of the cards they played with. While not as advanced as a regular duel disk or as immersive as virtual reality, it more than served its purpose of amusing the duelists and spectators at the cafe.

On its owner's command, the gleaming green dragon pulled its head back before blasting the enemy creature with a stream of shining gems. This inflicted enough damage to win the duel, as indicated by a shout from the opponent. "Gotcha!" the winning player said. "My dragon's so cool!"

The other boy laughed, nodding along. "Yeah, you beat me." He held out his hand, shaking with the winner. "Want to go again?"

"Sure," the victor agreed, the two picking up immediately to start another game.

While most of those watching were simply impressed by the skills on display, Maria in particular was interested in how things ended. Regardless of who won or who lost, both children just seemed happy to be playing. There wasn't any anger or sadness or a fear of loss between them, just friendship and joy. It was an almost entirely foreign idea to her, making what should be a rather mundane sight almost hypnotizing.

"Should she be out there?" Yuritzi said, approaching the counter with evident concern. "Maybe she should go upstairs. It's been about five hours. She probably needs a rest."

Miguel waved his hand to dismiss her concerns. "It's fine. She had a break not that long ago, plus it's barely an hour before we close." This did little to stem Yuritzi's worry, Miguel leaning onto the counter as he added, "If it's that much of a problem, you could take her place out there. Bet that maid outfit would look good on you."

They didn't have time for any more smart comments, the chimes at the front of the shop signaling the opening of the front door and a new patron entering through it. Unfortunately, it was someone Yuritzi was not at all looking forward to seeing.

Akatsuki from school approached the counter, a bit surprised to see her classmate here. "Hey, you work here, too? Small world."

"Oh, is this your friend?" Miguel said to Yuritzi, the latter shrugging as she avoided eye contact.

Akatsuki nodded. "We go to school together. Weird I haven't seen you here before. I come in about once a week, right?"

"About that often," Miguel agreed. "Ever going to finish that computer you're supposed to be building? Not that I'm complaining since you keep handing me money." He smiled at his own joke, nudging Yuritzi's shoulder. "But, yeah, she's usually off making a delivery or cleaning in back. Or at the house."

"Your house?" she asked. "You live together?"

He nodded. "Yeah. She's my sister, actually. Adopted. Good thing, too, since I can't afford to lose any more of the good genes." The two laughed, Miguel giving Yuritzi a pat on the head. "It's a pretty good job working with both my cute little sisters."

Yuritzi turned a bright red. She didn't think it was possible to hate this interaction even more than she already had before but here she was now, trying to will herself into teleporting to another reality just to get away from it.

"You know, your cute little sister saved my life the other day," Akatsuki said, a bit disappointed in herself for enjoying Yuritzi's embarrassment as much as she did.

"Wow, really?" Miguel asked. "No one told me about that."

She nodded. "Yep. Couple of punks at school tried some stuff and she scared them off like it was nothing."

"Who would have thought we had a hero working here?" Miguel laughed, turning to look to Yuritzi only to find that she'd vanished. More specifically, she'd slunk down under the counter, curling into a ball. Probably not the best way to drive home her earlier heroics.

"Anyway," Miguel said to change the subject, "what did you need this time? You break something again?"

Akatsuki gave a nervous laugh, pressing the tips of her index fingers together as she explained her situation. "Well, I was trying to record some stuff, but then nothing recorded because some other program decided to override my feed. Override it by…breaking it."

"How's that work?" he asked.

"Eh, don't worry about it," she said, not wanting to admit her involvement in the highly publicized terrorist attack on Vrains.

Miguel raised an eyebrow, figuring that there was more to the story than she was letting on. He didn't probe any further, figuring they all had their secrets. Not like he was one to judge. "Well, whatever," he said. "I'll see what I can do about a replacement and send it over to you."

Akatsuki sighed, relieved to hear this. "I really can't thank you enough for putting up with all of this." Knocking on the counter, she added, "And see you tomorrow at school," before heading out of the shop. Yuritzi couldn't even muster a grunt, too flustered by the excruciating social interaction to leave that spot for some time after.

(SOL Technologies)

"The plan to use GO Onizuka to defeat Playmaker has failed," Akira Zaizen explained to Kryan as well as the SOL Technologies board of directors, each represented by various ivory chess pieces floating in space. Those assembled today were the Queen, King, and Bishop. In truth, they were all more than aware of the recent battle between the two duelists, most of Vrains having watched it happen. Still, it was good to establish things before discussing what their next move would be.

King spoke first, stating, "It is essential that we obtain the program in Playmaker's possession." Again, something they were all aware of.

"And that bounty hunter, as well," Bishop added. "Lightning Hunter defected from us after taking what reports indicate was another Ignis. We can't allow that to happen."

"Agreed," Queen said. "Zaizen, as head of security, it's your duty to take care of these problems. If these threats can simply run wild, faith in SOL Technologies and Link Vrains will plummet."

"I understand," he said, doing his best to keep a neutral disposition despite the pressure he was under.

"I hope you do," Queen emphasized.

"I think there's something else we should address," Bishop spoke again. "Lightning Hunter was Kryan's responsibility initially. All that one's jobs went through him." Attention was now focused solely on him. "Zaizen's incompetence is one thing, but this is another matter entirely. Do you have anything to say for yourself after letting a high-value target like that betray us from right under our noses?"

Seemingly unfazed by all of this, Kryan merely nodded. "It's true," he said with a rather nonchalant tone, given the severity of this issue. "I take full responsibility for not intercepting Lightning Hunter sooner. As such, I'm more than happy to shoulder some of the burden of taking them down alongside my colleague."

"And do you have a plan for how to do that?" Bishop asked, still obviously annoyed.

"I propose we call in GO Onizuka again."

Immediately, he was met with more disapproval. "And why would we want a known failure to work for us again?" Queen questioned.

"Well, to put it simply," he said, "failure in one thing doesn't mean failure in another."

"If I may," Akira interrupted. "We've discussed this plan previously. The full scope would be using Onizuka as a distraction. While he occupies Lightning Hunter, another of our agents will be able to move in and secure victory."

"Indeed," Kryan said with a smirk.

"To remain honest, I should note that I object to this strategy," Akira added. This level of dishonesty and duplicity didn't sit right with him, especially with how it would no doubt shame Onizuka. He'd be tricked into thinking it was a chance at redemption only to learn at the last moments that he was just another pawn in SOL's dealings.

"Noted," Queen said dismissively. All three of the chess pieces were silent for some time, seemingly deliberating over this strategy among themselves in private. Eventually, the small orbs that dotted the front of each piece lit up again, indicating that the people they represented had returned. "We will approve this measure," Queen told them.

"Thank you for you accepting our idea," Kryan said with a bow, Akira following suit despite his earlier objection. "We won't let you down."

* * *

(Command Center)

"Regardless of anything else, I still think Onizuka put up a good fight against him," Miguel said as the recording of the Charisma Duelist's battle with Playmaker from two days prior played on his computer. Yuritzi and Maria were also there, both seeing the duel for the first time.

With their duties done at the shop , all that was left to do for today involved Lightning Hunter and Vrains. That said, Yuritzi was having trouble focusing with Maria in the room, wanting to push her out for fear that she'd be hurt if she got involved. She did nothing to act on these impulses, however, unable to deny her things after she'd taken an interest in them.

"His deck is interesting," Yuritzi concluded. "Especially the way he uses his rapid Link Summoning technique."

"His deck is like yours," Maria signed. "I still like yours better. They're more like Kamen Rider." What she'd said would be nigh-incomprehensible to anyone not in the know, Maria having invented her own sign for her favorite show (left hand on hip, right hand pointing to the side with index finger extended) out of necessity.

This finally made Yuritzi smile, signing a small message of thanks back at Maria for the compliment.

"What's the purpose of these hand gestures?" Zero asked, unsure as to what she was witnessing here. She'd seen it before but only now felt compelled to comment on it, figuring out that it wasn't a typical means of communication for most humans.

"To communicate with each other," Yuritzi said.

"Maria's deaf, so she can't really hear stuff most of the time," Miguel added, signing as he did so as not to alienate his sister from a conversation about her. "So we talk to her like this so we can all understand each other."

Zero nodded. "Humans are certainly impressive to think of things like that. They can even replace lost senses. I'll need to find a program to learn it for myself."

Miguel translated the last bit for her, Maria looking happy at the prospect of actually being able to understand the tiny creature in the duel disk without an intermediary. "It'll be a pleasure to speak to you, Miss AI," she replied.

The two shook hands (or finger on Maria's part), the AI adding, "For the record, you should all be using my name now. Zero-Q."

"Why that name?" Miguel asked her.

"My serial number. It's 00000."

"And what about the Q?"

"It's like another zero."

"That seems..." He couldn't really find a kinder way to say "redundant" or "pointless" at that moment.

"If you think about it, you'll understand eventually. From what I know about humans, you should think it's very cool." She didn't know much about humans. That was an objective fact.

Yuritzi shrugged. "Whatever. She can call herself whatever she wants. No reason to be negative about it."

* * *

(Den City Orphanage)

"...eight, nine, ten!" Go Onizuka lowered his hands from his face, scouting the playground outside the orphanage in as exaggerated a manner as he possibly could. "They really gave me the slip this time," he said, deliberately ignoring several children sticking out from behind trees or in plain view under a picnic table. "I'm going to have to give it my all if I want to find them."

Stomping over to the table, he propped his leg up on the bench attached to it. "I wonder where they went," he said, seemingly oblivious to the giggles from a few of the children hiding underneath. He tapped his foot a few times, humming to himself in contemplation.

"I see you're one for children, Go Onizuka." Upon hearing the new voice, Go immediately stopped playing with the kids and turned to where he thought it had come from. "You seem very much like their big brother."

Looking behind him, Go saw Kryan standing in the corridor with his hands in his pockets "Greetings. My name is Kryan Zichon,. Deputy Security Manager of SOL technologies., iIt's a pleasure to finally get to meet you in person, Mr. Onizuka."

"SOL… What do you want with me?" Go had to do his best to prevent a more risqué remark from leaving his mouth, due to the presence of the children in the room. "I thought that our partnership was only a one -off thing."

In response Kryan smirked. "Don't be so naïve, Mr. Onizuka. You should know how the chain of command works, given the time you were the number one duelist in Link Vrains. I didn't realise that you had such a weak short term memory."

"Why you…!" Go once more had to restrain himself, this time from physically assaulting the SOL deputy. The kids still saw him as number one, and there was no changing that. The last thing he needed at this moment was to lose their faith too. "Tch, what do you want me to do."

"That's more like it!" Kryan smiled happily before reverting back to his previous calculating look. "I'm acting upon orders from both Queen and the higher- ups at SOL and my immediate boss Akira Zaizen to bring you back for another mission. One of utmost importance, one that could even possibly… Lift your ranking... So to say…" Go knew that the long- haired male in front of him was provoking him, he wasn't an idiot. But… If what he implied was true, then the desire was already there. "We want you to duel Lightning Hunter."

That blunt statement made Go raise his eyebrows. Sure, he had previously demanded to duel Lightning Hunter, but to do it so soon after Playmaker would be insane. "Lightning Hunter? That new bounty hunter that just suddenly appeared in the system? I thought they worked for you?"

"Yes, yes, and no," Kryan replied, answering the questions all at once. "They indeed have just appeared into the system, but they are just as much of a danger to it as Playmaker is. As for the last part, they were employed with us, but that contract has since been considered null and void."

"What's your point?" Go said, annoyed by Kryan seemingly deliberately dragging out the situation.

"Duel them for us. Retrieve the AIi they possess. Become number one again." Kryan removed one of his hands out of his pocket and handed over a singular card to Go. "Surely you want that? To be revered and held at the pinnacle of the dueling world once more? Do this for us successfully, and we can certainly pull some strings behind the scenes."

Kryan didn't wait for Go to reply as he moved to leave. "I'll be watching, so I don't need your commitment now;, just keep me in mind, 'kay? If you can't bring yourself to do it out of duty, then do it for the kids. They deserve to see their big brother on top of the world." With that the enigmatic deputy had vanished from the scene as a sea of eyes locked onto him.

Go saw the kids look up at him with wide eyes filled with excitement. "Do it!" They collectively yelled. "Playmaker was just a fluke! No one can defeat you!"

With that Go's mind was made up.

Kryan smirked.

* * *

(Akatsuki House.)

Aktasuki was writing on her computer, wearing long shorts and a shirt with a Phoenix bird on her chest. She wrote about the experience that happened in Hoelle's first attack, although things were complicated by not having many images of the scene.

"This is hard-" She growled in regret as she hit her face against the table. "Why can't I be a cool reporter?" She was lucky she was alone in her room, or people would think she was a lunatic talking to herself.

While she was still regretting, a message had come straight to her email address that she used for her reporting. She raised her head, and when she clicked on the message she opened her eyes in surprise, ran up to find her duel disk, and went to Link Vrains immediately.

Akatsuki knew that things were getting serious.

* * *

(O Hara Residence)

After the day's work at the O Hara residence, everyone was ready to go to sleep. Of course, Miguel was the first to fall asleep, sitting in the command room chair, and, as was common in these situations, Yuritzi carried the adult man, loaded on her shoulders, up to his room.

After throwing him to his bed, Yuritzi said goodbye. "Good night, giant baby," she said, laughing at her comment, and then closing the door to let him rest in peace.

Now the only task remaining was to see if Maria was sleeping in her room.

The door to the young woman's room was half open and with the lights on. Before Yuritzi could enter and check if Maria was resting, she stopped dead when she heard Zero-Q's voice in the room.

"I finally came to understand sign language, Miss Maria." The excited tone of learning something new could be heard, and Maria seemed proud to have caused it. The girl had her listening device.

Yuritzi had a smile on her face for Maria.

"If you want, you can take my notes should you have more questions about it." María said as she took a notebook from the desk and, at the same time, accidentally dropped a Deck Holder from it. The girl picked it up immediately.

"Miss Maria, I didn't know you were a duellist," Zero said with a curious look.

Maria was a little intimidated and, with a slight blush on her cheeks, said, "I am not, although I would like to be, but I am afraid that Yuritzi..."

_"You would like to be?" _Zero asked, not understanding very well. "If you would like to be, what stops you from not achieving that goal?" Zero opened a digital window and connected to the internet quickly. "I do not understand what it says. If there are many programs on the web for duelists with disabilities so they can joined the world of pro dueling…"

Maria was somewhat hesitant,not wanting to reveal much information to the AI, because Yuritzi had told her not to tell anyone about their past.

"Well, it's not that I don't want to or my limitations are the problem. It's that I don't know if Yuritzi wants me to learn."

"Why would that be a problem? I say you are not fighting for your life as she does."

"She is afraid I will be hurt by dueling or react badly to it, that it will remind me of bad times." Maria hugged the deck to her chest. "And it's something that I understand. I also don't want her to worry about me. My brother even tried to get her to teach me since he is not very good at explaining."

"Your brother wants you to duel too?"

Maria nodded. "He even bought me this deck of cards. He worries as much as Yuritzi does about my happiness, and I don't want anyone to feel bad for me." A sad smile appeared on her face, making the AI feel bad for her.

Zero glanced away, alerted by a noise outside the room. "There seems to be someone outside," she said, pointing towards the door.

When Maria went to check, she saw no one outside. She found it strange and only returned to her room, this time closing the door completely.

The cyber duelist fell from the ceiling she was holding onto – her attempt to hide from Maria when she opened the door. She had heard everything Maria said to Zero. She just felt sorry for her, feeling horribly wrong for taking Maria's chance to be happy.

* * *

_**(Link Vrains)**_

"If you mess with the Knights of Hanoi, you must pay the price." One of the Hanoi knights had cornered Tech-Glitch on a Link Vrains rooftop. "Prepare to fight, silly girl." He had his duel disk at the ready.

But Tech-Glitch was just looking up, ignoring the knight. "I'm threatening you – don't ignore me like that!"

Glitch rolled her eyes and put her finger to her mouth, telling him to be quiet. "I'm waiting for someone, if you could hold on for a moment."

As intended, this won the Hanoi knight's irritation. "I'm going to delete your account!" He had his duel disk ready to remove Tech-Glitch from Link Vrains. The journalist backed away for a second, afraid of the possibility that he could actually follow through on his threat.

The Hanoi knight suddenly looked up in terror as Playmaker jumped off his duel board. Just seeing him falling in front of them both and standing in front of Tech-Glitch made the knight back off.

"This is the tenth knight from Hanoi that we've encountered, Playmaker. Do we end him how we did the other two?" Ai, on Playmaker's duel disk, said confidently.

"The tenth?" the knight from Hanoi whimpered fearfully.

"Would you like to be the next to suffer our anger? We are on a very good streak today." His fists creaked, causing fear to intensify within the knight of Hanoi.

"You will pay for this, Playmaker." He disconnected, fleeing like a coward from the confrontation.

"This time I got the knight to leave." The AI hit his chest, proud of his accomplishment. Playmaker turned away, ignoring the AI's comment. "You can at least congratulate me!"

"Playmaker, wait!" Tech-Glitch called as the duelist began to leave. "There is an important thing that you need to see." The Link Vrains hero stopped, then turned to stare straight at the journalist, who backed away a step.

The girl turned her head and slapped herself for a moment, earning a rare look from the AI, and the Cyberse duellist raised an eyebrow. Why should she be afraid of Playmaker if he is a hero?

The girl raised her duel disk and showed the message that had been sent to her: Tomorrow, there will be a duel between Lightning Hunter and Go Onizuka, but what neither of them knows is that someone is waiting for both duelists. Where the light dies and revives, that's where you will find the Hitman. I want you to contact Playmaker and send this message, because if you fail, not only will you lose your account at Lightning Hunter's hands, but you will also be at risk of dying.

After Playmaker finished reading the message, he said in a firm and indifferent tone, "I do not know if it is legitimate. I have many doubts about this information. Even the source does not seem authentic."

Glitch already had a history of being tricked with false information, but she liked to think that she knew by now how to tell the difference between false and true information… "The information may not be legitimate, and it may be a troll, but we can't take the risk that it will hurt Go Onizuka or Lightning Hunter."

Playmaker crossed his arms. Even the AI did not know whether to believe the girl or not. "This all seems too silly. Why should we believe information that does not seem legitimately true?" Ai said dubiously. "Besides, we don't know you well. It could be a trap like last time with Go Onizuka, or maybe you're locking us in an even worse cage?"

The AI was right, she didn't have enough evidence to confirm if the message was true, but then she thought of something. "You can take it and trace where it came from. At least find out if it's really true." This still did not fully convince Ai or Playmaker. "Please, you are the only ones I can trust with this information. There is no one else I can put my faith in. We cannot let people end up suffering from this," Glitch said, passing the message file to Playmaker, who was still watching her.

The duelist just backed away and continued on his way, disconnecting from Link Vrains.

The journalist fell to the ground and hit it with her fist in anger. "Damn it, I'm an idiot."

* * *

_**(O Hara Residence: Saturday Morning)**_

"Yuritzi, we have a problem." Miguel woke Yuritzi abruptly. "We have Hoelle back in Link Vrains. Apparently, it has hostages."

Yuritzi didn't even blink or rub her eyes. She just got out of bed and noted that Maria was sleeping next to her, her duel disk in the middle of the bed and Zero sleeping on it. She put on her duel disc and woke up the AI, heading to the command room. "Zero, we have work to do."

"But I haven't even bathed," Zero argued.

"You can't take a bath. You're not human."

"But I still wanted to try it."

Yuritzi rolled her eyes." In another time, when we are not in a death situation."

With deck in hand, Yuritzi entered the cabin, which closed the moment she entered. "Access!" she shouted as she inserted her deck into her duel disk, posing with her arms and transporting herself to virtual reality. "Lightning Change!"

* * *

_**(Link Vrains)**_

Hoelle's soldier was located in one of the Link Vrains buildings. He had two hostages tied in a rope. The cameras of Sol Technologies had them recorded. Lightning struck the building near Hoelle's soldier. The hunter had arrived at the scene.

"You arrived on time, Lightning Hunter. I thought you would never come," Hoelle's soldier said and, in a moment of their distraction, he released a rope that attached itself to the cyber duelist's duel disk.

"An Anchor duel. You won't let me out of here without a good fight, will you?" the hunter exclaimed as their duel disk started due to the anchor.

The soldier's avatar began to alter, revealing himself to be the number one Charisma duelist, Go Onizuka. "I'd say we're here to entertain the audience rather than anything else."

"Go Onizuka apparently wants to face us..." Zero said.

"I told you last time that I would rather not fight with you. Not because I am not interested, but because I have no relationship with you or any reason to fight," the hunter said.

"Well, now you do have a reason to duel, thanks to the anchor. You know the risk of not accepting the duel and losing your account," Go Onizuka retorted. "This will be a duel to decide who deserves second place."

Hunter could do nothing but accept the challenge. Both duelists summoned their duel boards and raced to enter the data stream.

"Speed Duel!"

**_Go Onizuka: LP 4000, Hand 4_**

**_VS_**

**_Lightning Hunter: LP 4000, Hand 4_**

"I'll start," the charisma duelist shouted as the four cards of his starting hand materialized in front of him. He had a smile on his face and a good hand to start this duel. "I will summon Gouki Suprex from my hand." **[Hand 4-3]**

An ogre similar to a dinosaur, wearing a blue suit and body armor, threw his fists like a fighter.

_**Gouki Suprex 1800 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect**_

"When Suprex is summoned to the field by normal summon, I can call another Gouki monster from my hand. I will summon Gouki Twistcobra to the field." **[Hand 3-2]**

Another ogre materialized, making movements that copied a cobra, as his name suggested.

_**Gouki Twistcobra 1600 ATK / 0 DEF / LIGHT / Level 3 / Warrior / Effect**_

"Interesting, a level 4 monster and a level 3 monster at the same time," Zero-Q commented, one hand on her chin in thought. "I wonder if he will use the same strategy that he used against Playmaker."

"Possibly; we shouldn't let our guard down," Lightning Hunter commented back. "So, his next move may be waiting for us to face him."

Go Onizuka smirked. "You can try to predict my moves however you want, but that won't stop my fighting spirit or my victory," the ogre duelist remarked, clenching his fist in front of them.

Zero-Q put her hand on her chin. "What is he trying to do by insulting you? Is this not prohibited by the rules or something like that?"

"It's trash talk. It's used in wrestling and other sports to get the opponent's attention. It makes things exciting, so to speak," Hunter clarified.

Interesting, Zero thought, so she decided to do the same as the Charisma duelist. "Go Onizuka, you can never beat us! If you couldn't even beat Playmaker, what makes you think you can defeat us?"

Go Onizuka clenched his fists, insulted by the AI's words. He hit his chest and then told Hunter aggressively, "That AI of yours has a lot of courage to speak to me like that. I put a card face down and end my turn."

"I do not belong to Hunter. We are companions!" Zero pointed at Onizuka. "Isn't it true, Hunter?"

"Companions do not want others to fight with other people," Hunter told the AI, who lowered her head in shame.

Hunter continued their turn after Zero recovered from her embarrassment. "Draw." They took a card from their deck. [Hand 4-5] "I will start by activating the Hunter's Download continuous spell card." The card appeared on Hunter's field. "It allows me to discard a Cyberse Jaeger monster from my hand and add a monster with 1000 attack points or less from my deck to my hand."

Hunter discarded Helper Assistance from their hand, and a card came out of their deck. "Since Archer was added to my hand, I can special summon him to the field." Before Onizuka could react, an arrow had hit him in the chest, and when he looked, he found that it had come from the monster Hunter had summoned. "If Archer is special summon to the field, its effect deals 300 damage to my opponent for every Cyberse monster on the field."

_**Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Archer 1000 ATK / 800 DEF / LIGHT / Level 3 / Cyberse / Effect**_

_**Go Onizuka LP: 4000-300 = 3700**_

"Then I will use my normal summon to summon Puercospin to the field." A bolt of lightning fell from the sky, manifesting itself in a strange sphere covered in electricity, which gave way to a rodent made entirely of energy. "When a monster is normal summoned to the field, I can special summon Quick Bunny to the field." A third lightning bolt appeared, this time rising from below the data stream into the sky. The blue robotic rabbit hopped from the lightning bolt to fill the last Main Monster Zone, cleaning its yellow ears and face, simulating the creature it was based on.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Puercospin 100 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 2 / Cyberse / Effect**_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Quick Bunny 300 ATK / 300 DEF / LIGHT / Level 1 / Cyberse / Effect**_

"Now I will Link Summon." Hunter fired a lightning bolt from their hand, opening the Link Marker portal. "I set Puercospin on the Link Marker." The monster shot out onto the Link Marker. "Link Summon! Appear, Link-1, Cyberse Jaeger Bospider to the field." Shooting from a spider web, a spider in metal armor appeared on Hunter's field.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Bospider 1000 ATK / EARTH / Arrows: Down / Cyberse / Effect / Link-1**_

"Bospider's effect lets me put a counter on one of your monsters on the field." The spider shot a direct stinger at Twistcobra, covering it with a dense spider web. "Due to Puercospin's effect, when it is used as Link Summon material, I can draw a card, and at the same time, return Puercospin to the field."

Go smiled at the new challenge. Hunter wouldn't let him use anything with that counter they put on his Gouki. "I will activate the effect of Twistcobra to sacrifice it and add its attack to my Gouki Suprex."

_**Suprex ATK = 1800 + 1600 = 3400**_

"When a Gouki monster is destroyed, I can add a Gouki card to my hand."

That affected Hunter's plan, but did not completely destroy it. "I Link Summon again, this time with Quick Bunny." Again, the portal appeared, and the rabbit shot straight towards it. "Link Summon! Appear, Link-1, Cyberse Jaeger Fire Sparrow." A flaming fireball appeared as fast as it disappeared, revealing the little flaming bird in its wake.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Fire Sparrow 500 ATK / LIGHT / Arrows: Up / Cyberse / Effect / Link-1**_

"Next I'll do a third consecutive Link Summon. This time I will use Bospider and Hunter Archer." The two monsters were sent to the Link Markers. "Link summon! Appear, Link-2 Techno Magician." He appeared at their command, holding his technological staff, electrical energy manifesting from him.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Techno Magician 2000 ATK / EARTH / Arrows: Left, Up / Cyberse / Link-2**_

As Hunter extended a hand towards the sky, a bolt of lightning shot out to open the portal above the field. Both of their monsters began to glow. "Appear, the circuit that opens the door of freedom to those lost in the dark!"

The duo of Cyberse monsters transformed into swirls of energy, Fire Sparrow flying towards the top arrow on the portal, and the Link-2 Techno Magician splitting in two before flying towards the bottom left and bottom right. "Arrowheads confirmed. The summoning conditions are at least two Cyberse Effect Monsters. I set Techno Magician and Fire Sparrow in the Link Markers."

The arrows lit, the space between them sparking to life. Throwing electricity in all directions, a new monster began to emerge. "Circuit combine!" Lightning Hunter called. "Link Summon! Come forth, Link-3! Cyberse Jaeger Thundercode Talker!"

**Cyberse Jaeger Thundercode Talker 2300 ATK / LIGHT / Arrows: Top, Bottom Left, Bottom Right / Cyberse / Link / Effect**

Leaping from the portal was a gray-armored warrior, a three-pointed gold crown seated upon its head above a pair of gleaming emerald eyes. In its right hand was a mechanical ax with a blade made of dark energy, and in its left, a gleaming shield of yellow, crackling electricity.

"Fire Sparrow's effect activates when used as material by a Link-3 monster, increasing the new monster's attack by 200 for each of its Link Markers," Hunter explained. "Then Thundercode's effect increases Puercospin's attack because it's in Thundercode's Link Marker. I end with a face-down card."

_**Puercospin ATK = 100 + 500 = 600**_

_**Thundercode Talker ATK = 2300 + 600 = 2900**_

"How do you like that, Go Onizuka! You can't defeat us now, you underdeveloped gorilla!" Zero-Q yelled from the duel disk. Even her partner was bothered by the comment.

"Calm down, you're acting like a bully."

Zero stopped and shook her head, apologizing to Hunter. "Sorry, I was getting carried away."

(Link Vrains Square)

"Interesting move by Lightning Hunter," the Duke remarked, sipping his coffee while his girlfriend ate a chocolate cake. Both of them were sitting on a bench while they watched the duel on a large screen. The girlfriend broke a piece off the cake and put it in his mouth for him to eat.

"It is delicious, honey," the Duke said with a happy smile.

"I knew you would like it, my love. Come here and kiss me." They brought their lips closer and they began to kiss in the middle of the plaza, where everyone was watching them, including their fellow duelists who were standing nearby to watch the duel.

"Get yourselves a room please. We don't want to see you doing that here," Crystaline said, taunting the lovebirds.

They parted from the kiss, annoyed by the comments. Pink Reaper even stuck her tongue out at the gladiator, who only teased her further.

After she stopped laughing, Crystaline crossed her arms and eyed Duke. "What do you think of the duel against Go Onizuka?"

"What can I tell you? He's up to something for sure." Duke responded, taking another sip from the cup of coffee. "It's part of his act. He never repeats a move twice for no reason."

Crystaline raised an eyebrow at him. "But is he using the same move he used against Playmaker in their first duel or just trying to trick Lightning Hunter?"

The Duke snapped his fingers and pointed at the crystal duelist. "Exactly, it's all part of his plan. That's why he was Link Vrains' number one duelist."

_**(Duel)**_

"Ha!" Go Onizuka gave a huge yell of satisfaction and hit his chest. "This has started as I expected."

Why didn't he activate his skill? Hunter wondered.

Onizuka drew a card from his deck to begin his turn. **[Hand 2-3]** "Draw." He grinned when he looked at the card in his hand. Now he finally had a move to beat his opponent. "When I have no monsters on the field, I can summon Gouki Riscorpio to the field without tribute."

The fighting ogre appeared on the field, flexing his claws with a battle cry.

_**Gouki Riscorpio 2300 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 5 / Warrior / Effect**_

"My circuit appears." A bolt of lightning shot out of his hands and straight into the sky, creating a portal with arrows. "Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning conditions are at least 2 Gouki monsters. I set two Gouki monsters, Gouki Suprex and Gouki Riscorpio, to the Link Markers!" Both Goukis turned into tornados and went to the left and bottom arrows. "Circuit combine! Link Summon! Appear, Gouki Jet Ogre!" A new ogre came out of the portal, carrying a sword and propelling himself with a jetpack on his back. The creature had horns on his head.

_**Gouki Jet Ogre 2000 ATK / EARTH / Link Markers: Left, Bottom / Warrior / Effect / Link-2.**_

The effect of both Suprex and Risocorpio activated, letting Go add two other cards to his hand. "I activate Gouki Rematch, allowing me to return two Gouki monsters back to the field in defense mode." Twistcobra and Suprex appeared again. "My circuit appears a second time."

He repeated the same process again. "Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning conditions are at least 2 Gouki monsters." The portal reopened. "I set two Gouki monsters, Gouki Twistcobra and Gouki Jet Ogre, in the Link Markers!" The Gouki monsters again turned into tornados. Twistcobra went into the bottom arrow, and the Link-2 Jet Ogre spun off an extra tornado to fill both bottom corner arrows. "Circuit combine! Link Summon! Appear, Gouki The Great Ogre!"

Go Onizuka's ace monster materialized on the field as a huge ogre.

_**Gouki The Great Ogre 2600 ATK / EARTH / Link Markers: Bottom Left, Bottom, Bottom Right / Warrior / Effect / Link-3.**_

"If Jet Ogre goes to the graveyard from the field, his effect increases the attack of all Gouki monsters I currently control by 500 until the end of the turn."

_**The Great Ogre ATK: 2600 + 500 = 3100**_

Again, Go added another card to his hand when Twistcobra was sent to the graveyard. Zero-Q was impressed by Go's combo plays. "The more monsters sent to the graveyard, the more cards he adds to his hand. It's totally crazy."

Miguel spoke from the transmitter. "He is a fighter. Fighters always find ways to support their allies."

"How do you know that?"

"Mexican wrestling and Japanese wrestling are similar. We used to watch them a few years ago," Hunter informed their AI partner.

"Amazing."

Go Onizuka activated the effect of his latest monster. "The Great Ogre's effect causes all monsters on the field to lose attack equal to their defense."

Hunter reacted instantly. "It won't work. Thundercode's effect won't allow it," they proclaimed. "I will sacrifice Puercospin, allowing me to negate the effect of your Gouki! EMP Blast!" Thundercode's shield sent out a sound wave that transmitted an energy shock, destroying the ogre. "The second part of Thundercode's effect is that it allows it to gain half the attack from your destroyed monster."

_**Thundercode Talker ATK = 2900 + (3100/2) = 2900 + 1550 = 4450**_

"So strong!" Zero had to say it.

Miguel agreed. "That's true."

Go didn't feel sorry for his ace monster. On the contrary, he was more excited. "I reveal Gouki Moonsault from my hand, select Gouki Suprex to return to my hand, and summon the first one." The moment Suprex disappeared, Moonsault jumped up and did a few test punches with its fists covered in rabbit-paw-like gloves.

_**Gouki Moonsault 1900 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 6 / Warrior / Effect.**_

"Moonsault allows me to return The Great Ogre and Twistcobra from my graveyard to my hand." Go said, "Then I discard a Gouki card from my hand to summon Gouki Headbatt." The new ogre monster had a vampire theme.

_**Gouki Headbatt 800 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 6 / Warrior / Effect.**_

"Then I choose Moonsault to gain 800 attack points from Headbatt's effect."

_**Moonsault ATK = 1900 + 800 = 2700**_

"Then I activate Gouki Face. This card allows me to destroy a Gouki monster from my field. I will choose Headbatt." The monster was destroyed. "The second effect allows me to bring a Gouki monster back to the field. I summon Gouki Jet Ogre again."

Go added another card to his hand when Headbatt was destroyed. "My circuit appears again," Go Onizuka exclaimed and again made the portal of arrows appear. "I will use Moonsault and Jet Ogre in the Link Markers." His ogres turned into tornadoes of energy that passed over the top, bottom, and bottom left markers. "Circuit combine! Link Summon! Appear, Gouki The Blade Ogre!" From the portal, a new ogre appeared, wearing blue armor and a red cape, carrying a powerful double-bladed sword with which he could destroy his enemies. "My Blade Ogre gains 300 attack for every monster it points to. Gouki Double Sword!"

_**Gouki The Blade Ogre 2400 ATK / EARTH / Link Markers: Bottom Left, Bottom, Top / Warrior / Effect / Link-3**_

_**The Blade Ogre ATK = 2400 + 300 = 2700**_

"That… That is an incredible recovery," Zero stuttered, "but why is it on Thundercode's Link Marker?"

"Damn," Hunter exclaimed after reading the effect of their opponent's monster.

"I am not the same duelist that was when I fought with Playmaker. My intentions are different, and my dueling is different," the Charisma duelist proclaimed, hitting his chest again. "I activate the effect of The Blade Ogre. I can destroy a monster that this card points to, and The Blade Ogre can make a second attack."

Blade Ogre used the double-edged sword to successfully destroy Thundercode.

**_The Blade Ogre ATK = 2700 - 300 = 2400_**

Hunter covered their face as Thundercode shattered, and then activated a set card immediately after. "I activate my Virus Disintegration trap card. This cuts your monster's attack in half, and every time you attack, we can draw a card."

_**The Blade Ogre ATK = 2400/2 = 1200.**_

Go was frustrated to learn that he couldn't finish Hunter this turn, but it wouldn't be fun to finish things so fast. "I activate Gouki Shout, which increases the attack of a Gouki monster by 300 for every Gouki monster on the field."

_**The Blade Ogre ATK: 1200 + 300 = 1500.**_

"Blade Ogre, attack Hunter directly." With his sword, The Blade Ogre managed to slash Hunter's chest.

_**Lightning Hunter LP: 4000 - 1500 = 2500**_

Both players drew a card after that. Go continued with his next attack. "The Blade Ogre attacks again."

_**Lightning Hunter LP: 2500 - 1500 = 1000**_

They both drew another card. "My turn is over," Go announced. "Lightning Hunter, are you excited or is the helmet not letting you see?" he asked.

"I have a job to do, Go Onizuka. I don't have time for this."

"Then I have to put a smile on your face. Otherwise, I'm not doing my job well."

Zero realized something. "That makes sense. You are a Charisma duelist. Entertaining your audience is what you do."

"That is why I must become stronger, so that others continue smiling," Onizuka finished, hitting his chest and pointing to Hunter. "This is my ultimate test. If I make the one who claims to be a non-human enjoy my duel, then I will become the best Charisma duelist."

"Are you forgetting that you are trying to take away my AI?"

"I am only here to fight you."

(Link Vrains, Nearby Buildings)

Tech-Glitch kept an eye on the buildings around her, trying to find some clue that would lead her to the place where the Hitman was, but there had been nothing.

"I wish that Playmaker was here. He's much better than me in this kind of situation." The girl was desperate. The situation was not in her favor, and time was running out. If she did not find the Hitman and Lightning Hunter, she would soon be dead.

She observed her duel disk, rereading the message that the anonymous person had sent her. Perhaps there was a clue as to where the hitman was. "There must be something to tell me where he is… but it is not even-"

The duelist stopped for a moment when she saw a sign on one of the buildings: a flashing light in a window. Glitch looked at the message again. "Where the light dies and revives, that's where you will find the Hitman."

She had found her answer. Now came the hardest part – confronting the hitman and praying that she would succeed. "I hope I don't die." She went to the location of the light, but luckily for her, Playmaker was watching her.

(Duel)

"Draw!" Hunter looked at the new card, then looked at their hand.

So, this is a fun duel, Yuritzi said, smiling inside. She was excited. This is what you wanted, Maria.

The hunter looked at Go Onizuka. "Onizuka," Hunter addressed their adversary, watching him. "Show me why you are the best Charisma Duelist. Earn my respect as a duelist and the man that you are."

"Hunter!" Zero-Q said, alarmed by the sudden change in personality in her partner.

(Command center)

Miguel had his eyebrows all the way up, surprised to see his sister acting that way. "Whoa, seriously, she's having fun." He looked at Maria. She was just as happy.

_**(Duel)**_

"I will summon Electrode Hunter." They put the card in their duel disk. "When I summon a Cyberse monster while I have no cards in the Extra Monster Zone, I can summon Quick Bunny."

_**Cyberse Jaeger Quick Bunny 300 ATK / 300 DEF / LIGHT / Level 1 / Cyberse / Effect**_

_**Cyberse Jaeger Electrode Hunter 1700 ATK / 100 DEF / LIGHT / Level 4 / Cyberse / Effect**_

"Electrode Hunter's effect activates. I can special summon a monster of level 1 or 2 to the field from my deck. I select Cyberse Jaeger Cybernetic Butterfly."

_**Cyberse Jaeger Cybernetic Butterfly 600 ATK / 900 DEF / WIND / Level 1 / Cyberse / Effect**_

Lightning Hunter raised a hand, another bolt of electricity firing from the palm. "Appear again, the circuit that opens the door of freedom for those lost in the dark!" The two non-Link Monsters began to glow, transforming into swirling masses that hit the appearing circuit. "Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning conditions are two Cyberse monsters, Quick Bunny and Butterfly!"

As the monsters struck the left and bottom arrows, the circuit spat and sparked once more. "Circuit combine! Link Summon! Appear, Link-2, Cyberse Jaeger Fast Gunman!" What emerged was a diminutive monster in a white raincoat. A large blank faceplate concealed its features, save for a single golden eye. It held a pair of futuristic ray guns.

_**Cybersen Jaeger Fast Gunman 1300 ATK / LIGHT / Arrows: Left, Bottom Right / Cyberse / Link / Effect / Link-2**_

"Butterfly can cause my monster's attack to increase by 200 for every Cyberse monster on the field."

_**Fast Gunman ATK = 1300 + 400 = 1700**_

"If I control a Cyberse monster on the field, I can summon Cyberse Jaeger Elves to the field."

The cyber fairy flew over the field, dropping its dust onto the field and grinning with excitement.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Elves 800 ATK / 800 DEF / EARTH / Level 3 / Cyberse / Effect**_

"I Link Summon again." The portal appeared. Lightning Hunter raised a hand, and another bolt of electricity fired from the palm. "Appear again, the circuit that opens the door of freedom for those lost in the dark!" The two non-Link Monsters began to glow, transforming into swirling masses that hit the appearing circuit. "Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning conditions are two Cyberse monsters, Electrode and Elves!"

Striking the left and bottom arrows, the circuit spat and sparked once more. "Circuit combine! Link Summon! Appear, Link-2! Cyberse Jaeger Cannon Ichaival!" A girl came out of the portal, wearing armor and holding two powerful cannons in her hands.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Cannon Ichaival 2000 ATK / EARTH / Arrows: Left, Right / Cyberse / Effect / Link-2**_

"I activate Trap Setter's effect from my hand. When I summon a Link monster to the field, I can special summon this card."

_**Cyberse Jaeger Trap Setter 1800 ATK / 900 DEF / WIND / Level 5 / Cyberse / Effect**_

"I have the key to victory," they said, static crackling across their suit. Raising a hand, they announced, "Skill, activate! Lightning Wings!" The AI reacted to this, her eyes glowing as she conducted the electricity being thrown off by Hunter. The two worked in tandem, the Skill they had acquired going into effect. "This Skill can only be used while my Life Points are at least 1000 lower than yours." This condition was met without issue. "When that happens, I can revive a Cyberse Link Monster from my Graveyard!"

The Data Storm whipped up into a vortex, electricity spinning around it to change its color to a pale yellow. Moments later, a thick blade cut through the side, blasting it apart to reveal the Thundercode Talker from before. Now, however, its armor was white and featured a pair of crackling wings along its back.

"Thundercode's effect activates because Fast Gunman is on Thundercode's Link Marker."

_**Fast Gunman ATK = 1700 + 500 = 2200**_

"Trap Setter's effect activates. When the attack strength of a monster on my field is altered, I can pay that difference with my life points and at the same time make my opponent's monster lose that much attack." Trap Setter threw one of his traps at the Gouki monster.

_**Lightning Hunter LP: 1000 - 900 = 100**_

_**The Blade Ogre ATK = 2400 - 900 = 1500**_

"I'll Link Summon another monster." The portal appeared yet again. Lightning Hunter raised a hand, and another bolt of electricity fired from their palm. "Appear again, the circuit that opens the door of freedom for those lost in the dark!" The two non-Link Monsters began to glow, transforming into swirling masses that hit the appearing circuit. "Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning conditions are two or more Cyberse monsters, my Link-2 Fast Gunman and my Trap Setter!"

Striking the left and bottom arrows, the circuit spat and sparked once more. "Circuit combine! Link Summon! Appear, Link-3, Cyberse Accelerator!" A mechanical robot emerged from the portal on the field. It was connected to the same Link Marker on Thundercode as Fast Gunman had been.

_**Cyberse Accelerator 2000 ATK / LIGHT / Arrows: Left, Right, Bottom / Cyberse / Effect / Link-3**_

_**Cyberse Accelerator ATK = 2000 + 500 = 2500**_

"I equip Thundercode with Assault Cannon to give it 500 more attack points." A rifle appeared in Thundercode's left hand.

_**Thundercode Talker ATK = 2300 + 500 = 2800**_

"I begin my battle phase. I will first make Cancon Ichaival attack your Blade Ogre." She raised her cannons straight at Onizuka's ogre. "When Ichaival battles an opponent's monster, that monster loses 500 attack points for each monster on my field that was special summoned from the Extra Deck." Due to Elves' second effect, Hunter drew a card after Ichaival attacked.

_**The Blade Ogre ATK = 1500 - 1000 = 500.**_

The ogre was completely destroyed, leaving the Charisma Duellist without any monsters on the field to protect him.

_**Go Onizuka LP: 3700 - 1500 = 2200.**_

"I activate the Cyberse Assault quick-play spell directly from my hand, which allows me to add a level 4 or lower Cyberse monster to my hand." Hunter proclaimed. "Let's get this over with, Thundercode."

"No, I can stop it," Onizuka yelled. "I activate my Skill, Fighting Spirit, allowing me to bring back a Gouki monster that was destroyed in battle this turn." Blade Ogre returned to the field again, this time gaining attack by pointing to Accelerator. "You know well the effect of Blade Ogre. When it points to a monster, it gains 300 attack."

_**The Blade Ogre ATK = 2400 + 300 = 2700**_

"Unfortunately for you, one of the Assault Cannon's effects allows me to negate the effect of monsters that the equipped monster fights."

_**The Blade Ogre ATK = 2700 - 300 = 2400**_

"Then I can't afford this. I activate the effect of Gouki Iron Claw from my hand. By discarding this card from my hand, a Gouki monster gains 500 attack points, and at the same time, it is not affected by my opponent's card effects."

_**The Blade Ogre ATK = 2400 + 800 = 3200**_

"This is intense! If that attack connects, Hunter will lose," Zero observed.

But Hunter already had another maneuver to fight her opponent. "I activate the effect of Cyberse Accelerator. In the battle phase, I can select a monster that this card points to, and that monster gains 2000 attack points."

_**Thundercode Talker ATK = 2800 + 2000 = 4800**_

Onizuka wasn't about to be beaten either. He discarded a card from his hand. "By discarding this card from my hand, the damage I take in battle from an attack is halved."

Thundercode fired a shot from his cannon, making sure the Gouki monster was definitely destroyed this time.

_**Go Onizuka LP: 2200 - 800 = 1600**_

"But due to Accelerator's effect, you will no longer be able to make a direct attack against Onizuka. What bad luck," Zero mentioned in a bittersweet tone, but she also couldn't deny how entertaining the duel was.

_**(Link Vrains: Building Nearby)**_

Glitch was inside the building, trying to find the Hitman's whereabouts. Everything was dark, so she used the light from her cameras to guide her along the way. She was scared more than ever, and without anyone's support, this was more complicated than she liked. On top of not knowing where she was in this dark place, she did not know where to go or if her target was even still there.

She couldn't lose control of the situation. She slapped her face and tried to look as brave as she could.

Glitch activated a program that could detect the signal of other duels. It was the only action she could think to do. She knew that, if Hitman was hiding here, it was because he did not want to be seen.

Glitch activated a program that could detect the signal of other duels. It was the only action she could think to do. She knew that, if Hitman was hiding here, it was because he did not want to be seen.

"The signal of duel disks is difficult to find when being used indoors within Link Vrains. They're usually easiest to detect from outside," the girl muttered. She was trying to find a signal here that would take her somewhere. "But if it's done from within the same building... BINGO!" She raised her arm in a pose of victory as the program locked onto a signal.

It wasn't far from here. She ran cautiously. She had to get there before it was too late.

After a while, Glitch reached the door of the room where Hitman was. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door a couple times before grasping the handle and opening the door.

When she looked up, someone was pointing a virtual weapon at her. "It can't be you again!"

"Oh yeah, it's me again." The Hitman was Deus, that Hoelle soldier who had faced Lightning Hunter. "Now that we are here, I can finally get rid of you."

"You are the one who wants to kill Hunter. It's because they defeated you, right?"

"You are testing my patience."

The girl caught sight of a gun by the window. Deus was presumably planning to use it to shoot Hunter. He noticed where Glitch was looking and quickly knocked her down, stomping on her face.

"Rats don't speak. Now please let me delete your account forever."

She couldn't let the situation end this way, not when someone needed her help. She recalled one of her cameras and used its flash to momentarily blind the Hoelle soldier.

No longer pinned to the ground, she lunged at him, knocking him down, but Hoelle's soldier hit her leg, causing her to fall too.

When Deus could see again, Playmaker was in front of him.

"Playmaker..." he muttered fearfully, as if he had seen a ghost.

"You showed up after all. Thank you!" Tech-Glitch was relieved to see Playmaker more than anything, coming at the right time, or so she thought until Deus started to laugh maniacally.

"Hey, you already lost, fiend!" Playmaker's AI said, pointing at Deus dramatically. "Surrender and accept your defeat with dignity. Your plan is over." But that didn't stop the Hoelle soldier's maniacal laugh. "This kind of stuff makes me sick."

Deus eventually stopped laughing and looked Playmaker in the eyes with his cold gaze. "It hasn't stopped me. In fact, the only thing I have done is distract all of you! Ciao~" He disappeared, and a shot was fired from the weapon in the open window.

"It was in automatic!" Tech-Glitch said in alarm, looked at the gun in detail, and then turned to look at Playmaker. "His job was just to aim the target and have the gun take over when the time was right."

The Link Vrains' hero jumped and immediately materialized his duel board. If he couldn't stop the shot, maybe he could at least get there before it hit Hunter.

_**(Duel)**_

Before the Charisma Duelist began his turn, he heard a sharp sound. When he realized a bullet was about to hit his opponent, he moved quickly to get Hunter out of the way.

"Hey!" Zero said, confused by the whole thing she was witnessing. Hunter was about to retaliate, but when they noticed that Go did not do it to brag or because he was cornered with his next action, they stopped.

Go successfully used his duel board to intercept the bullet, but unfortunately, the impact caused him to fall into the nearby building's window.

_**(Link Vrains Square)**_

"What the hell just happened?" Crystaline stared at the screen, stunned along with her fellow Charisma Duelists.

**_(Command Center)_**

Miguel was shaking his fist at the desk. "It must have been the rats at Sol Technologies."

_**(Duel)**_

Hunter raced to the window Go had crashed through, with Playmaker and Tech-Glitch a second behind. She was the first to speak. "Did the bullet break through his duel board?" she asked, worried.

"Luckily, no." Hunter reached the Charisma Duelist first. They looked him over and realized he would be fine. "He just passed out. But I am familiar with the type of program that was used for the bullet." Playmaker knew this as well from his own missions. "That bullet would have disconnected me, but then kept my avatar data on the network to send to a preset recipient. This type is sold on the Link Vrains black market."

"Hunter, that bullet was aimed at you," Glitch reported. "We were trying to stop him, but it was too late."

Hunter looked at Playmaker. They knew what he was going to say. "I still don't like that you keep doing this. And it doesn't make us allies."

"I don't think you and Hunter will ever become friends," Zero commented.

Onizuka began to open his eyes, but he was still exhausted after the confrontation. He seemed to have no strength to get up, but when he saw who was there, he spoke. "They were the sunny ones, right?" He knew well that it was no coincidence that he was hired again.

"No. This time, it was Hoelle's. Apparently that dwarf from last time wanted revenge against Hunter," Glitch remarked, but the idea that Sol was involved made no sense. Maybe it was better to think this over with her informant. The best thing to do now was to make sure Onizuka was alright. "Right now, we should call it a day and go home before anything else happens."

Hunter disagreed with Glitch's assessment. This was not over yet. As they spoke, Hunter had communicated with Miguel, Link Vrains screens beginning to be broadcast to the former.

"We still have a duel to finish," Hunter declared. Go looked at Hunter and smiled, knowing that his opponent didn't want to let it go either. Even Playmaker seemed to be taking an interest in the duel's outcome. Zero, still new to human interactions, wondered what Hunter had planned.

"Why? He has no reason to fight anymore," Ai inquired.

"He can't move anymore because he saved you," Glitch pointed out, equally unhappy with Hunter's decision.

Hunter ignored her and began to address the Link Vrains audience watching them from the main square. They held up three fingers of their right hand. "If Go Onizuka claims to be the #1 Charisma Duellist, then he will either get up or plan to disappoint the public," Hunter proclaimed. "He has until the count of three or he will automatically lose the duel."

"That bastard Hunter!" Crystaline screamed in indignation at Hunter's dishonorable actions, hitting the virtual table in front of her. "This is not the way to treat your opponent."

The other Charisma Duelist looked absorbed on the other side of her table.

"Ohhh, this looks interesting." Duke took a sip of his cup of coffee.

On the other hand, at the O Hara residence, Miguel found his adopted sister's behavior strange. "Hey, Yuritzi, don't you think you're going overboard?"

"It is what a duelist does," Maria said aloud, then she switched to sign language when he looked over at her. "They're having fun."

"Maria, are you watching this duel?" Hunter asked quietly. Their adopted sister nodded in response. "I hope you like this."

Returning back to the scene, Tech-Glitch tried to convince Hunter that all this was wrong. "The duel is over! There is nothing else to do. Right, Playmaker?"

He merely shrugged his shoulders with his usual stoic expression.

"Hunter, you are a jerk," Crystaline said angryas she hit the table.

"You still haven't stood up." To make things more humiliating, Hunter asked Miguel to put different screens in front of them. "The Onizuka countdown has started." They put one finger down, with only two more to go.

"Onizuka!"

"Onizuka!"

"Go!"

"Get up!"

"You are useless, Onizuka!"

"You will never be considered a good Charisma Duelist!"

The audience yelled Onizuka's name as he impotently hit the floor with his fist and tried to get off the ground. It was not just the cry of the audience or the fact that some were booing him, but knowing that he could not make the children of the orphanage smile was the worst thing that could happen if he allowed himself to surrender so easily.

Hunter dropped the second finger. There was only one more attempt left for Go to get up.

"Why don't you let yourself go?" Tech-Glitch muttered, unable to understand the actions of the two duellists.

"Ahh!" Go yelled, finally able to rise from the ground with pride to face Hunter before the final count fell. He received compliments from people who supported him in the audience, which gave him more motivation to continue.

Glitch was surprised to see Playmaker smile – for the first time, she saw Link Vrains' hero showing positive emotion. She finally understood everything. This was a game for them to enjoy, and even people like Hunter or Playmaker, who used duels to fight their battles, could enjoy it.

The two duelists re-entered the data storm, resuming the duel, and the Hunter monsters reappeared on the field.

Go Onizuka drew a card from his deck. "I reveal Gouki Ringtrainer in my hand and activate its effects when I control no monsters on the field."

Hunter was now ready to counter Onizuka's movement. "I activate Thundercode Talker's effect, sacrificing Accelerator and negating Ringtrainer's effect." Accelerator did whatever monsters do in Vrains duels when sacrificed.

"I will summon Gouki Suprex to the field," The Charisma Duelist shouted. "I activate its effect, allowing me to summon a Gouki monster from my hand. I choose Gouki Bearhug." The bear-themed ogre's sharp claws flexed as if agitated.

_**Gouki Suprex 1800 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 4 / Warrior / Effect**_

_**Gouki Bearhug 2400 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 6 / Warrior / Effect**_

"Since Bearhug was summoned due to the effect of a Gouki monster, I can halve the attack of a non-Gouki monster."

His ogre attacked, its claws penetrating Thundercode's armor and slicing its attack in half.

**_Thundercode Talker ATK = 2100/2 = 1150_**

"Maybe Onizuka can beat them, after all," Glitch wondered.

"You're too quick to judge, girl," Ai replied. "Onizuka will summon another monster much, much bigger, because that is what duelists do – summon bigger and better monsters every turn."

"Ohhh." Glitch said. Not being a duellist herself, she had never noticed that before.

Playmaker briefly glanced down at Ai before returning his focus to the duel.

Onizuka smirked as if he knew what Playmaker was saying about him, although the data storm and the distance meant he couldn't hear the conversation clearly. "I Link Summon with my two Gouki monsters. I summon Gouki Jet Ogre back to the field, and it gets a power boost for being on your Thundercode's Link Marker."

_**Gouki Jet Ogre 2000 ATK / EARTH / Link Markers: Left, Bottom / Warrior / Effect / Link-2**_

_**Jet Ogre ATK = 2000 + 500 = 2500**_

"I activate the effects of both Gouki upon being sent to the graveyard." He added two cards to his hand. "I activate a second Gouki Rematch from my hand to summon back Gouki Octrostretch and Gouki Tagpartner."

One Gouki with an octopus theme and another with a more beastly theme reappeared on the field.

_**Gouki Octostretch 0 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 1 / Warrior / Effect**_

_**Gouki Tag Partner 1700 ATK / 0 DEF / EARTH / Level 5 / Warrior / Effect**_

"My circuit appears!" The portal emerged. "Arrowheads confirmed. The summoning conditions are at least three Gouki Monsters. I set Gouki Jet Ogre, Octostretch, and Tagpartner in the Link Markers."

The arrows lit, the space between them sparking to life. Throwing off electricity in all directions, a new monster began to emerge. "Circuit combine!" Onizuka called. "Link Summon! Come forth, Link-4! Gouki The Giant Ogre!"

_**Gouki The Giant Ogre 3000 ATK / EARTH / Arrows: Left, Bottom Left, Bottom Right, Right / Cyberse / Effect / Link-4**_

The greatest of the ogres manifested on the field, wielding a large sword. Jet Ogre's effect added 500 attack points to the ogre.

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 3000 + 500 = 3500**_

Octostretch's effect allowed Onizuka to add a card to his hand. He continued with his next move. "Tagpartner's effect activates. If it was sent to the graveyard as material for a Gouki Link monster, that Link monster can gain 1000 attack points."

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 3500 + 1000 = 4500**_

"Giant Ogre's effect allows him to gain 1000 attack points if his original attack is not the default."

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 4500 + 1000 = 5500**_

"Amazing, he did all of this in one turn." Zero muttered. "This is why he's such a good duellist. Well, that and his stubborn personality."

"He is impressive," Hunter allowed, more and more impressed with this duel. They were enjoying it.

"I begin my battle phase. Giant Ogre attacks your Thundercode Talker!" he shouted, but before the attack connected, he took a card from his hand. "I activate a second Gouki Roar, increasing my Gouki monster's attack."

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 5500 + 300 = 5800**_

"It might be just on a whim or because Onizuka likes to give it his all, but Go could still win the duel if he didn't have all those effects," Duke thought out loud.

Crystaline crossed her arms. "Onizuka is a Charisma duellist. He has to give everything to earn his audience's cheer."

"True."

Hunter discarded the last card from her hand. "I activate the effect of Kuricode. It allows me to make two monsters battle against each other and make their attack points become 0."

"My ogre's effect allows him to be unaffected by the effects of monsters weaker than himself."

Zero countered, "True, but you also forgot that the effect of our equip card can also negate the effects of monsters when the equipped monster enters battle, which means we can still use Kuricode's effect."

Go widened his eyes at the revelation. "Impossible."

"Static shock!" A small monster made of electricity appeared on the field, causing waves of electricity that affected both monsters.

_**The Giant Ogre ATK: 0**_

_**Thundercode Talker ATK: 0**_

Go clenched his jaw, pretending to be concerned to create drama. He took a card from his hand and continued, "I discard Gouki Iron Claw so that my monster gains 500 attack points and is not affected by your card effects for the rest of the turn."

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 5800 + 500 = 6300**_

"Now Hunter's monster has a much lower attack. It will be a humiliating defeat," Glitch remarked.

"Hey, what do you think about this?" Ai asked Playmaker.

"Keep watching."

"I banish Kuricode from my graveyard and therefore do not take any damage in battle from the destruction of my monster," Hunter declared their last defense.

The ogre used his sword to split Thundercode talker in two, breaking it into two pieces. A shield surrounded Hunter, protecting them from harm.

"When my monster is destroyed, I can draw a card with the effect of Assault Cannon."

The Charisma Duellist clenched his fists and punched the air, enjoying the thrill of the duel. "My turn is over."

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 3000**_

"What do you think, Hunter? Will we win this duel in the next turn?" Zero asked. The duel was really becoming complicated, and their options for victory were becoming less and less.

"As always, we'll find a solution. One last Lightning Draw as always." Hunter began their turn, taking a card from their deck at lightning-quick speed, leaving a trail of electricity. "I activate the Miracle Link spell card. This allows me to select a monster on your field, and each of us can draw a card for each of its Link Markers."

"It will not happen. I activate the effect of The Giant Ogre. When it is targeted by a card effect, I can decrease its attack by 500 and negate the effect of your card," Go announced. The effect of Hunter's spell card was negated.

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 3000 - 500 = 2500**_

"When The Giant Ogre has his attack changed, he can increase his attack by 1000."

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 2500 + 100 = 3500**_

"We have one option left," Zero said.

"I will summon Hunter Swordsman." A mechanical swordsman emerged and displayed a pair of Japanese-inspired energy swords in front of the enemy.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Hunter Swordsman 1500 ATK / 1000 DEF / EARTH / Level 4 / Cyberse / Effect**_

"I activate the effect of Helper Assistance from my hand and return a Cyberse Jaeger monster to the field from the graveyard."

A girl in a cyber suit appeared on the field with her backpack.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Helper Assistance 1100 ATK / 1000 DEF / EARTH / Level 3 / Cyberse / Effect**_

Hunter looked at their extra deck to review the cards that they had at their disposal. One amongst them brought back memories.

Always use it to remind you of me.

That voice resonated with them again. This was not the right time to use it, however, even though the situation warranted it.

Hunter reached out into the sky, and a bolt of lightning shot out to open the portal above their field. Three monsters began to glow. "Appear now, the circuit that opens the door to freedom for those lost in darkness!"

The trio of Cyberse monsters morphed into a whirlpool of energy and split into four smaller whirlpools, which then flew toward the top, bottom, left, and right arrows on the portal. "Arrowheads confirmed. Summoning conditions are at least two Cyberse Effect Monsters. I set Assistance, Link-2 Canon Ichaival, and Hunter Swordsman in the Link Markers."

The arrows and the space between them lit up. Pulling electricity in all directions, a new monster began to emerge. "Circuit Combine!" Lightning Hunter called. "Link Summon! Come out, Link-4 Rasterliger!"

The lion came roaring out of the portal and positioned himself before Hunter.

_**Rasterliger 2000 ATK / LIGHT / Arrows: Top, Bottom, Left, Right / Cyberse / Effect / Link-4**_

"Assistance's effect activates, so I can draw one card for each Cyberse monster that was used as Link Material." Hunter drew three cards from her deck. "I activate Hunter Swordsman's effect. If it is used as Link Material, that monster gains 200 attack points for each Link Material used."

_**Rasterliger ATK = 2000 + 3(200) = 2600**_

"I banish Trap Setter and Elves in my graveyard to summon Thunder Eagle." A robotic eagle appeared on the field. It had yellow armor with black accents covering its wings. Its green eyes sparkled as it shrieked.

_**Cyberse Jaeger Thunder Eagle 2200 ATK / 0 DEF / WIND / Level 7 / Effect / Cyberse**_

"I activate Hunter Download's continuous card. I can discard a card from my hand and add a monster card with 1000 or less attack to my hand from my deck. The card I discarded was Butterfly, so its effect activates."

_**Rasterliger ATK = 2600 + 2(200) = 3000**_

"I activate Thunder Eagle's effect and discard one card from my hand to take two more from my deck," Hunter said. They looked at the cards in their hand, then showed them to Zero.

"We will win with that," Zero said, pointing to one of the cards.

"Let's see. I activate Staff of Lightning and equip it to Thunder Eagle." Hunter put a card face down. "Then I activate Rasterliger's effect and select a card in my graveyard. Now, it can gain attack equal to the selected monster, my Thundercode Talker, in this case."

_**Rasterliger ATK = 3000 + 2300 = 5300**_

"I begin my next attack. Thunder Eagle attacks your ogre."

The ogre used his sword to attack Thunder Eagle by launching it at a building, but the Eagle was not destroyed.

"Your equip card," Onizuka said in realization.

"Yes. The effect of Staff of Lightning prevents a monster from being destroyed, and at the same time, I do not suffer damage in battle. After damage calculation, I can destroy my equip card so that your monster loses attack equal to the difference between the battling monsters' attack points."

"Impossible."

_**The Giant Ogre ATK = 3500 - (3500 - 2200) = 2200**_

"Let's get this over with, Rasterliger." The lion fired a bolt of energy that took the form of Thundercode Talker.

Go was happy. Although he was about to accept another defeat, at least he was left with the fact that again it would make the public excited. "Let's get this over with, Ogre!

The monsters repeatedly clashed their weapons, releasing great discharges of energy each time. In the last clash, the Gouki's sword broke into a thousand pieces. The Lightning Hunter's monster managed to attack it in the stomach, causing its destruction and a large explosion that shot Go into a nearby building.

_**Go Onizuka LP: 1600 - 3100 = 0**_

_**Lightning Hunter = WINS!**_

Hunter approached the building Go fell in to make sure he was okay. To everyone's surprise, the Charisma Duellist was laughing.

"Why is he laughing?" Zero asked. "Shouldn't he feel bad for losing?"

"I'm just laughing at the duel I had. That's all," Onizuka explained. At that moment, he looked at all the screens showing crowds of people shouting his name. "Many of them think I'm useless for having lost." He clenched his fists but kept smiling. "I will have to do better."

"These people do not know what they are saying. I do not think that just because someone lost, they have stopped being the #1 Charisma Duelist," Hunter said.

"What would someone who is not human know?" Go teased. Then he looked at Hunter again, who was giving him a thumbs-up. "What do you mean by that?

"This sign comes from ancient Rome. It is a gesture for those who have done the right thing. I always use it for those who are worthy of it."

"Does that mean I have earned your respect?"

Hunter turned around, ready to leave, but before doing so, they said one last thing to him: "It means much more than respect. The next time we meet, I will pay my debt to you, Go Onizuka."

Lightning struck the ground, and at that moment, Hunter had left Link Vrains. Onizuka hoped to face Hunter in another duel soon. Until then, he had some children to keep entertaining.

* * *

_**(O Hara Residence: Saturday Night)**_

After the duel, Yuritzi took a long rest and slept all day Saturday until she woke up after dark, her stomach growling. Miguel was preparing food in the kitchen while Maria was wide awake, sitting at the nearby table and looking through the same deck of cards from before. Zero was watching more human programming on television, trying to learn more about human culture.

Yuritzi put her hand on her chest and sighed before heading straight to the table. She had something to resolve. "_Good evening_," she said with a smile. When Maria tried to hide the cards, Yuritzi quickly told her, _"You don't have to hide them from me."_

Miguel sat at the table across from Maria and watched the scene with Zero, eager to see what would happen.

Maria took the cards again and showed them to Yuritzi. She shuffled them while her older sister watched and the four of them sat in companionable silence for a few minutes.

"So, um," Yuritzi said a little later, then went quiet for a couple seconds. She took a deep breath and started again. "So, would you like me to teach you how to take on the top players, like I did today?"

Maria got up from the table and started to nod excitedly. "Please, please!"

Miguel smiled, then sniffed and went still. "Oops, I guess I forgot to set a timer for the oven. I'll take whatever is worst burnt."


End file.
